Salvage Business' Second Try A Go

Atlanta-based Pull-A-Part Inc. plans to invest about $4 million in a do-it-yourself auto parts salvage yard in East Knox County - their second attempt to locate in Knoxville in two years.

Site preparation has begun on the 21-acre property on Old Rutledge Pike east of the intersection of Interstates 40 and 640. The facility will be the company's second location in Tennessee - it has an operation in Nashville - and eighth overall.

The Knoxville location will employ 15 to 20 workers and should be open by early July, weather permitting, said Ross Kogon, Pull-A-Part's chief of staff.

Knoxville has the population density, potential customer base and the type of cars Pull-A-Part looks for in choosing an expansion site, Kogon said.

"Knoxville is just a very good fit for us," Kogon said.

Pull-A-Part is a combination discount auto parts retailer and recycling company. The company sells parts to customers who bring their own tools to the salvage yard to remove the parts themselves. The company typically keeps an inventory of about 2,000 cars at each location.

Each location also recycles about 2,000 tons of automobiles a month and thousands of lead batteries a year. Before a vehicle goes on the display lot, all oil, gasoline, antifreeze, brake and transmission fluids and other liquids are drained. A typical Pull-A-Part location recycles about 50,000 gallons of fluids a year, the company said.

Vehicles for each location are typically purchased from the immediate area, according to Kogon.

"We take them from the local streets," Kogon said.

Pull-A-Part has been looking at expanding to Knoxville for almost two years. In June 2005 the company announced plans to open a salvage yard on the old Brookside Mills property on Baxter Avenue just north of downtown.

However, area economic development officials were not enthusiastic about having an auto parts recycling business in the middle of the high-profile Interstate 275 corridor leading into downtown.

With opposition likely, Pull-A-Part regrouped and looked for another suitable location in Knoxville.

"We knew it was a market we wanted to be in," Kogon said.

Pull-A-Part, a family-owned business founded in 1997, has two locations in metro Atlanta and one each in Augusta, Ga.; Louisville, Ky., Charlotte, N.C., Birmingham, Ala., and Nashville.

The company is pushing hard to expand this year. In addition to a Knoxville location, Pull-A-Part plans to open Louisiana facilities in Baton Rouge, Lafayette and New Orleans; and also in Cleveland, Ohio; Jackson, Miss.; and Montgomery, Ala. Knoxville News Sentinel