O'Reilly targets Advance Auto's home turf

O'Reilly Automotive, the No. 3 U.S. auto parts chain based on number of stores, is considering the home turf of its next-largest competitor.

O'Reilly Automotive filed a site plan Wednesday to open a store in Roanoke, Va., the home of Advance Auto Parts.

O'Reilly spokesman Mark Merz said the company's sights on Roanoke are not based on the presence of a competitor but rather are a natural expansion outward from its distribution center in Greensboro, N.C., which opened in May.

"We're not going to skip any given markets. We take a look at the market and see if we can service it out of the distribution capacity of that (distribution center)," Merz said. "If we determine that it has good customers, good businesses, a good population of vehicles, then we open a store there, whether or not it happens to be the home of one of our competitors."

Merz said the company couldn't disclose specifics about a timeframe for the project.

Virginia is not new territory for the Springfield auto parts retailer - the company has eight Virginia stores, all in the southern part of the state.

O'Reilly's 3,337 stores are within 68 of second-place Advance, which has 3,405 stores, as of March 31. O'Reilly has added 1,500 stores in the last year, due in large part to its acquisition of Phoenix-based CSK Auto Corp., and plans to add 150 more in 2009.

The No. 1 auto parts retailer, Memphis-based AutoZone Inc., has 4,172 stores as of May 9.

Meanwhile in Springfield, O'Reilly is building a 117,000-square-foot headquarters building slated to open in March.