Larry’s 45 years of experience began in 1969 when he started National Carburetor Exchange in a 600 square foot building, rebuilding and installing carburetors for the South Florida market. Starting the business on his own, he was responsible for all areas of the business, from rebuilding the carburetors to sales and collections. Over a five-year period, the business evolved into a retail parts store handling many performance lines in addition to the carburetor line.
In 1974, the business had grown to become a Warehouse Distributor carrying all performance lines, and the name was eventually changed to National Auto Parts Warehouse dba National Performance Warehouse. In the early 1980’s, the business continued to grow through the expansion into traditional auto parts and with the opening of additional warehouses in Orlando and West Palm Beach, Florida.
Under Larry’s leadership, the company went on to become an aftermarket powerhouse with 19 warehouse locations across North America, including Toronto, Canada. With no signs of slowing down, Larry hopes to continue NPW’s expansion throughout the continental US.
When he wasn’t building carburetors, Larry lived out his passion of drag racing professionally. He went on to win several events throughout the 70’s and 80’s and at one point even held the National Record for the AHRA, IHRA and NHRA. In October of 2013, he was inducted into the Miami-Hollywood Speedway Hall of Fame.
Throughout his career, Larry has served on the Board of Directors for SEMA, PWA AND AWDA. Larry is the only person to have ever served on all three association boards simultaneously. He currently serves on the board for the Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance and the AAM Group. One of his accomplished goals while serving as Area Director for PWA was to bring electronic price updates to over 90% of performance lines.
Larry currently lives in South Florida with his wife, Hilda, of 44 years, and has three sons, Larry, Chris and John, along with two grandsons, Tommy and Justin. Actively involved in the community, from 2000-2003, he was the head golf coach for Dade Christian School, and in his second year coached the team to their best ever record of 16-1. Larry presently serves as President of the Country Club of Miami Estates Homeowners Association.
Following in their dad’s footsteps, Larry’s 3 sons now work in the business, as well. Chris (COO) runs the day-to-day operations, John (VP Operations) the operations for all warehouse locations and Larry Jr. warehouse operations at the Miami Headquarters.
Today, NPW operates in over 1,000,000 sq. ft. of warehouse with 18 distribution centers, Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Washington and Canada. NPW services over 18,000 accounts in North America and several international markets.