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SYRACUSE - James Ranalli, president and sole owner of United Auto Supply of Syracuse, Inc., still remembers accompanying his father, James Ranalli, Sr., to work at the company when he was younger.
"I've worked here since I was 4 or 5," Ranalli says.
James Ranalli, Sr. founded United Auto Supply of Syracuse, Inc. in 1946. The elder Ranalli owned a small business but decided to get into the automobile-parts industry, his son says.
"Twenty-five years ago, I bought out my father and things changed," Ranalli says. "We've grown extremely quickly and offer [expanded] distribution."
One of the changes Ranalli refers to is increasing customer demand for quicker service.
"We had to provide customers with parts in 30 minutes," he says.
Today, United Auto Supply counts car dealers and independent repair shops among its most prolific clients. The automobileparts distributor and retailer does not sell to the public.
"We are different from a NAPA because we like to sell to the professional installer," Ranalli says.
Ranalli says that AC Delco and General Motors parts represent 50 percent of his company's business. The remaining automobile parts are from manufacturers including Bosch, Cardone, Spectra,...