PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Pep Boys
Includes Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack
Automotive · Philadelphia, PA
- PE Firm
- Icahn Enterprises
- Year Acquired
- 2016
Carl Icahn's firm bought Pep Boys for $1 billion, then closed the stores and kept the garages.
What They Did
- Icahn Enterprises bought Pep Boys for about $1 billion in 2016, taking the publicly traded chain private and ending public visibility into its finances
- By 2021 the company had shut or sold at least 120 of its 500-plus retail stores and leased 109 more storefronts to competitor Advance Auto Parts — keeping only the service garages
- Icahn's separate auto-parts distributor, Auto Plus, filed for Chapter 11 in January 2023. Pep Boys was a separate business in the same group and stayed out of the bankruptcy
Since the Acquisition
- Retail stores closed across 24 states as Pep Boys abandoned parts retail to focus on its roughly 1,000 service centers
- If you bought parts at Pep Boys to fix your own car, that option is gone — the company would rather sell you the repair
- Many of the old storefronts now operate as Advance Auto Parts, while the Pep Boys name survives only on the garage side
Sources
- No sale: Icahn's Pep Boys speeds retail-store shutdowns; garages stay(2021-03)
- Pep Boys yields to Advance Auto Parts in major California expansion(2021-04)
- Auto Parts Retailer Controlled by Icahn Files for Bankruptcy(2023-01)
- Pep Boys' shuttering of its auto parts business makes 81 storefronts available(2023)
- Icahn Enterprises issues statement on Auto Plus Chapter 11 filing(2023-02)