There is an article in today’s Atlanta Journal Constitution on the parent company of who I work for –
At Genuine Parts, stability pays off big.
While Coca-Cola starts its third chief executive search in seven years, another Atlanta company is cruising along with only its third boss in 76 years.
Larry Prince has been chief executive officer of Genuine Parts since 1989. Now 65, he has no plans to step down.
“It’s a quiet little company doing its thing,” said Kevin Tynan, an analyst who follows Genuine Parts for Argus Research in New York.
It’s so quiet, said Tynan, that “when you say Genuine Parts, eyes glaze over.”
Genuine Parts bought S.P. Richards in 1975 when that company had annual sales of $28 million. Last year, the 156-year-old unit recorded sales of nearly $1.5 billion. It distributes everything from office furniture to microwaves to TVs to toilet paper.
What the company doesn’t plan to break up is its string of yearly dividend increases. It has one of the longest runs in corporate America at 48 years, and its dividend yield of 3.6 percent puts it in the top 10 percent of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500.