Will Stengel
President and Chief Operating Officer at Genuine Parts
Thank you, Paul. Good morning, everyone. I'd also like to thank the global GPC team for the strong start to the year. We appreciate all your hard work to take care of our customers every day. As Paul referenced earlier, the pride in our business was on display at our Investor Day last month. We were excited to share our vision, unique advantages, market opportunities, and how we're winning as we execute strategic initiatives. Our initiatives are focused on talent and culture, sales effectiveness, technology, supply-chain and emerging technology, all complemented by a disciplined M&A strategy. As we shared during the sessions, our team is well-positioned, with leadership positions in attractive fragmented markets, with established customer relationships, global supplier partnerships, technical expertise, and a scaled global infrastructure. We work together with shared values as one GPC team to create customer success and shareholder value.
Turning our attention to the first quarter performance in our two business segments. Total sales for Global Industrial segment were $2.3 billion, an increase of approximately $240 million or 11.9%. Comparable sales growth increased approximately 12.1% in the first quarter versus last year. This marks Motion's eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit comparable sales growth. From a cadence perspective through the quarter, January and February were the strongest two months on a one-year basis; but on a two-year basis, sales were relatively consistent throughout the quarter.
In March 2023, Motion eclipsed the previous monthly sales and profit record set in March of 2022. The sales growth at Motion continues to be broad-based with double-digit growth across most product categories and major industries served. During the quarter, we saw strength from industries such as food products, chemicals, mining and oil and gas. In addition, Motion continues to see solid performance with its corporate account initiatives, as sales with these customers grew approximately 20% in the first quarter. The corporate account strength is driven from not only new customers, but also strategic renewals of existing relationships.
In Asia-Pac, our Motion business continues to build-on its momentum, posting sales and profit growth well over 20% for the quarter. We realigned the leadership of the Industrial business in Asia-Pac, by organizing under one Automotive and Industrial leadership team in the fall of 2022. The team has made impressive progress to identify opportunities, take action, and deliver performance. Industrial segment profit in the first quarter was approximately $262 million or 11.6% of sales, representing the 230 basis point increase from the same-period last year. The continued profit improvement for this segment reflects excellent operating discipline on strong sales growth, both in North America and Asia-Pac.
In addition, the team in North America continues to build on the synergies from the KDG acquisition, last year. As we reported at our Investor Day, thanks to the incredible teamwork from many, Motion realized over $30 million in synergies in the first year, and we expect to achieve our target of over $50 million in total synergies by the end of this year, one year earlier than our initial expectation. For the quarter, Global Industrial represented 50% of total GPC's segment profit.
Turning to the Global Automotive segment, total sales were $3.5 billion, an increase of approximately $230 million or 7% versus the same-period in 2022. Total automotive sales benefited from our global diversification as our businesses outside the U.S. posted high-single digit to double-digit growth in local currency during the first quarter. From a cadence perspective, through the quarter, Global Automotive sales were strongest in February and March. On a comparable basis, Global Automotive sales increased approximately 7% with comps ranging from low-single digits in the United States to low-double digit growth in Europe and Asia-Pac. As Paul mentioned, we remain encouraged by the solid industry fundamentals and team execution, which we believe will continue to drive profitable growth.
Global Automotive segment profit in the first quarter was $264 million, essentially flat with last year, and segment operating margin was 7.5% compared to 8.1% in 2022. The strong performance of our European, Canadian and Asia-Pac businesses helps to partially offset lower margins in our U.S. Automotive business. Profit in the U.S. Automotive business was impacted by a sluggish start to the year on sales, combined with planned investments in wages and elevated freight-out expense.
Now, let's turn to an overview of our automotive business performance by geography. In the U.S., automotive sales grew approximately 4% during the quarter, with comparable sales growth of approximately 3%. The first quarter represents the toughest year-over-year comparison of 2023 with an approximate 12% comp growth in the first quarter of 2022. Looking at our average daily sales, growth was relatively consistent throughout the quarter, however, milder winter temperatures combined with extreme weather events, impacted automotive demand in certain product categories, and periodically disrupted operations. As examples, sales of batteries were positive, but below internal plans during the quarter, particularly in the Northeast. More broadly, we offset sluggish categories in heating and cooling, and undercar with strength in various core categories such as filters, brakes and fluids, all of which had growth above the U.S. average.
Growth was consistent across our regions, except for our West region, which experienced a more pronounced negative impact from weather, which temporarily disrupted many of our operations. Overall, we estimate that weather negatively impacted U.S. automotive sales by approximately 1% in the quarter. Sales to both commercial and retail customers were positive with mid-single digit commercial growth outpacing retail. Our commercial business saw sales increase across all customer segments, including continued strength with our fleet and government channel and mid-single digit growth in our NAPA AutoCare network. The sales performance in U.S. Automotive, started the year slow relative to our expectations. As a result, the team acted during March to address cost, while balancing its longer-term investment priorities. The benefits of the actions will be weighted towards the second half of the year. Sales have improved during the first half of April, when compared to March, and the team remains focused on delivering in '23, despite the soft start to the year.
In Canada, sales grew approximately 9% in local currency during the first quarter, with comparable sales growth of approximately 9%. Our Canadian performance reflects strong growth in several categories like brakes, chassis and filtration, all of which were up double-digits in the first quarter. In addition, we saw a strong performance in our heavy-duty business, which outperformed the total Canadian growth rate. These categories helped to offset headwinds in certain weather-related categories like batteries, which were pressured by a milder winter season. We're pleased with the strong quarter in Canada, and we continue to see compelling opportunities for long-term growth due to our leading market position, solid industry fundamentals, share gain initiatives and strong team execution.
In Europe, our automotive team delivered another exceptional quarter with total sales growth of approximately 22% in local currency and comparable sales growth of approximately 13%. The strong growth in market share gains across Europe continue to be driven by solid execution of key initiatives. During the first quarter, we saw high-single digit to double-digit growth across each of our geographies, as our teams continue to win new business with key accounts, drive higher share of wallet with existing accounts, and expand the NAPA brand in the region. We're on track to grow our NAPA branded sales from EUR300 million in 2022 to approximately EUR400 million in 2023.
Our entry into Spain and Portugal in 2022 has exceeded our expectations and value creation plans as it benefits from the NAPA brand and European scale advantage. In addition, our teams expanding our next drive EV service shops to approximately 400 locations, up from 150 shops in 2022. We believe our next drive offering will position the European team to lead our industry and the growing EV aftermarket.
In the Asia-Pac automotive business, sales in the first quarter increased approximately 14% in local currency from the same period in the prior-year, with comparable sales growth of approximately 11%. Both commercial and retail sales continued to perform well, with both growing at a double-digit rate in the first quarter. In addition, March saw a record sales and profits results across several go-to-market channels including Repco, NAPA, and our motorcycle accessories. Asia-Pac continues to make impressive progress on its talent and culture, and customer-centric growth initiatives. We continue to complement organic growth with strategic acquisitions to capture share in our fragmented markets and create shareholder value. During the first quarter, we completed several bolt-on acquisitions, primarily consisting of small automotive store groups that increased local market density in existing geographies. Our acquisition pipeline remains active and we will remain disciplined to pursue transactions that extend our leadership positions and create long-term value.
In summary, the global GPC team delivered strong first quarter results and we remain confident in the outlook for the balance of the year, despite a dynamic environment. We will execute our near and long-term initiatives and focus on what we can control. Our investments in our people, customer solutions, technology, supply-chain and emerging tech, will continue to enhance our capabilities and leadership positions. Thank you again to the entire GPC team for the hard work and performance.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Bert.
