Scot Ciccarelli: Okay. Thank you very much.
Operator: The next question comes from Michael Lasser of UBS. Please go ahead.
Michael Lasser: Good morning. Thank you so much for taking my question. On the U.S. auto business, can you frame how much market share you have locked in the most recent quarter, and how does that compare to the run rate, or is that, is it getting better, or is it getting worse?
Paul D. Donahue: And, Michael, can you repeat the last part of that question, you’re, you’re kind of fading in and out on it.
Michael Lasser: Sorry, Paul. Sorry.
Paul D. Donahue: That’s all right.
Michael Lasser: Are your share, yes, are your share losses getting better or are they getting worse?
Bert Nappier: Yes, Michael, I don’t think it’s getting worse. Listen, I think we’re clearly disappointed with the recent performance. And as I said, that plus some of the performance of our credible competitors would indicate we’ve given back some share over the last couple of quarters. But maybe a few thoughts to elaborate on the whole, share thought, which is — we’ve always had strong competition in this profit pool, both large and small. And as I said with Scot, it takes consistent execution everyday to serve those customers. And we just haven’t performed to, our expectations in ’23. I would tell you we have seen with the supply chain challenges moderating over the last 12 months, some of our smaller competitors have gotten more healthy, as it relates to inventory.
And so, we’re seeing them, playing from a different place of strength than they were maybe 12 months or 24 months ago. The good news is, is that we play in a huge market. It’s very fragmented. And as, Paul said, we know what we need to do to return to a position where we’re taking share. But we’re not, we’re not feeling like it’s getting worse. We’ve got a good line of sight of what we’re working on and taking action as we talked about on the call.
Paul D. Donahue: And Michael, Michael, I would just add to that, that you really have to break down. I mean, it’s a very broad question, when you start thinking about and talking about market share. It’s very fragmented industry. Yes, you have the big four, but then you’ve got you know, independent WDs scattered throughout the country, along with, with others. So, you really got to look category-by-category. And what I’m pleased to see, and I’m encouraged to see is that when I look at specific product categories, product categories that move the needle, for our business, we have made changes, and we have improved our availability and we’ve improved our supply chain. And I would tell you if we’re at fault for anything, it’s it took us too long to make those changes. I think we’ll touch on that. So, yes, no doubt better days are ahead and the team under Randy’s leadership are all over.
Michael Lasser: It’s just my mic problem. Thank you very much for that. And my follow-up question is [Technical difficult]
Bert Nappier: Hey, Michael, it’s Bert. You’re still cutting out pretty, pretty bad. We can’t hear you very well. Could you get a look —
Michael Lasser: So hopefully, that’s better.
Paul D. Donahue: Oh, yeah, much, much better.
Michael Lasser: All right. All right. Sorry. But my follow-up question is, some of the share dynamics influenced general parts — Genuine Parts ability or willingness to do acquisitions in the U.S. auto business right now?
Bert Nappier: Hi, Michael. It’s Bert. And first and foremost, welcome to the, to the universe of coverage for GPC. Thanks for joining, joining us. We appreciate that. I would say no. I mean, look, we look at what we’re — what’s happening here, and as Will and Paul have given me some color on, really just as something we’re managing through here in the near-term. The great thing about GPC is that we performed pretty well through all cycles. We’ve had $1.1 billion of cash generated here year-to-date $733 million of free cash flow. We have a tremendously strong balance sheet, and we’re improving our margins and growing earnings double-digits despite some softer topline. And so, I think the great thing is that the performance of the business holistically allows us to continue to take advantage of the market including the M&A market and investments in capital expenditures that are great for the business long-term.
