WORTHINGTON -- Arnold Motor Supply has been a fixture of the Worthington community since 1976. Its first store was located on Ninth Street in downtown Worthington, and the business moved to its current location, 704 Oxford St., in the 1980s.
"Worthington was our 18th store, and we've grown now to where we're considered to be in the top 20 for largest company owned distribution chains for auto parts in the nation," boasted Dave Kimbell, marketing manager for the Merrill Co. and Arnold Motor Supply, headquartered in Spencer, Iowa. "We're really quite proud of our company. It's privately held, and it's a partnership, so the people who work in the store, particularly the people in Worthington, are all partners. That's unique in the industry."
The local Arnold Motor Supply outlet not only sells auto parts but also provides shop services, something many local residents may not be aware of, Kimbell noted. The employees at the Worthington store had a lot to be proud of recently when they brought home three awards from the Arnold Motor Supply company shop meeting in Spencer. The Worthington store received Top 5 awards for fourth place in the category of 2006 Overall Shop Sales Percentage Increase and second place in the category of 2006 Overall Shop Sales. Local machinist Mark Hibma received a Top 5 Award for fifth place in Individual Shop Labor Sales for 2006.
"They do a lot of things in the shop," explained Kimbell. "Those two guys in the shop in Worthington, Mark Hibma and Jim Nelson, they do a lot of different things from rebuilding hydraulic hoses to working on 12-cylinder CAT engines. They do a lot of tractor work this time of year -- farm implements, combines, graders, skid loaders."
The Worthington store employs 10 people, seven full-time and three part-time, according to store manager Steve Weiskircher. Weiskircher has been with the company since 1968 and has been the manager in Worthington since 1995. All the Worthington employees have at least 10 years of experience with the company, and several have close to or more than 30 years.
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"We've got a great bunch of guys there who have been there a long time," Kimbell noted. "At that store, there's not much turnover. All of those guys have been in the business a long time."
Arnold Motor Supply was started in 1927 by E.P. Arnold in Spencer, Iowa. Today, the company employs 560 people and has six divisions and three distribution centers covering stores in five states. There are 49 company stores and 35 independent Auto Value and non-aligned jobbers. Twenty-one company retail stores have complete machine shops, such as the one in Worthington.
"We're growing," Kimbell stated. "We've diversified outside of auto parts. Our engines have gone all over the world, and we have a number of them with the military in Iraq. We have a contract to rebuild one of their Humvee engines, so we touch the world with our stuff. We also have our own manufacturing facility and do a lot of engines that come in with cracked blocks, so we have a huge business in antique tractors. There aren't any parts around for them in anymore, so they have to be rebuilt, and we specialize in that at several of our plants. ... We also have an industrial paint division, and we'll go into a manufacturing plant where they're spraying coatings, and we provide that for them."
Kimbell said that Arnold Motor Supply has been called "the quiet company," because people are unaware of the things the business is involved in. That's why recognizing their employees is so important.
Weiskircher said the recent awards were certainly a source of pride for his staff.
"They do an excellent job, and it's always nice to be appreciated," he said.
