Pull-A-Part Adds Three Locations

The company, founded by scrap industry veterans in the Cohen and Kogon families of Atlanta (see “Super Model,” the cover story of the Sept. 2007 edition of Recycling Today), opened stores in Montgomery, Ala., Lafayette, La., and Cleveland on the same day.

At the Cleveland location, store manager Todd Maher had spent the previous several weeks obtaining more than 1,200 cars to start building an inventory that will eventually reach 2,000 vehicles.

The company pays by weight for salvaged vehicles and displays them in sorted and computer-catalogued rows for do-it-yourselfers to shop for the components they need.

Pull-A-Part vice president Gregg Cohen was in Cleveland for the opening day to visit with employees and survey the 40-acre property.

The company now has 11 locations open and nine more under construction. In each of its markets, Pull-A-Part instantly becomes a major buyer of salvaged autos and a significant generator of flattened auto hulks for local shredding plant operators.

A key part of the company’s strategy is to make inventoried vehicles available to shoppers for no more than 90 days.

When a row of cars has been in place for from 60 to 90 days, it is moved from the retail yard over to the car flattening area, where the vehicles are flattened and prepared as shredder feedstock.