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For the life of him, Eli Futerman, 35, cannot remember when he became president of Hahn Automotive Warehouse Inc.
"Look it up in the prospectus," he says, finally, making it clear that the title means little to him.
Regardless, sitting at his big, new desk in his office, briskly taking calls, shouting orders through the open door to his secretary, Futerman makes it clear that he is in charge.
Futerman joined Hahn Automotive--founded by his father Michael Futerman in 1958 with a single parts store--in 1980. By that time, the company already was a $13 million, multi-location enterprise.
Today Hahn Automotive runs a multistate chain of some 150 retail auto-parts stores and a wholesale parts-distribution network selling to jobbers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest. The elder Futerman remains CEO.
Eli Futerman settled in behind the desk around 8 a.m., but arrived at the firm's West Main Street headquarters at 7:30 a.m., detouring to go over computer-system details with distribution staff.
The company depends utterly on its computer links, Futerman says. The system needs constant attention.
Adding to the logistical problems one would expect in running a system of that size are the demands of integrating a steady stream of acquisitions.
In November 1993, Hahn doubled in size when it acquired the 159-store Auto Works retail-parts chain based in Phoenix. The move also marked an aggressive entry into the retail auto-parts trade.
Auto Works was a financially troubled product of a string of acquisitions by several owners, who had cobbled it together from smaller chains in the Midwest.
Analysts since have praised Futerman's quick tune-up of the business as he integrated it with the 11-warehouse, 84-store Advantage Auto Store parts-jobbing operation Hahn previously ran.
Auto Works was a big bite, but Futerman is still hungry.
"I like to buy businesses," he says.
Indeed, even as it digests Auto Works, Hahn is in the midst of acquiring the Rochester-based Meisenzahl Auto Parts Inc. and Regional Auto Parts Inc. He has hired their former owner, David Applebaum, as a vice president.
The companies run a 35,000-square-foot warehouse operation and two auto-parts stores.
Now, having parked himself behind his desk, Futerman begins to shape this day.
His pleasure at being at the nerve center of the growing...