Will Stengel
President and Chief Operating Officer at Genuine Parts
Thank you, Paul. Good morning, everyone. I want to start by adding my thanks to the global GPC teams for their ongoing dedication to taking care of our customers. We're pleased with the solid start to the year and our first quarter performance. We truly appreciate your hard work and commitment.
As always, we're aligned with global strategic initiatives centered on five key priorities, including talent and culture, sales effectiveness, technology, supply chain and emerging technology, complemented by disciplined and value-creating acquisitions. Our global focus around these priorities drives efficiency and pace as we work to continuously improve the customer experience and deliver profitable growth.
Now, turning to our first quarter results. During the first quarter, total sales for global industrial were $2.2 billion, a decrease of approximately 2% with comparable sales down 2.6% versus the same period last year. These results were in-line with our expectations as we were up against our most difficult comparative period of the year, with first quarter 2023 sales up 12%. From a cadence perspective, average daily sales were flat to slightly down in all three months, with January seeing the most pressure, partially driven by a negative impact from severe winter weather that causing customer facilities to close.
Motion continues to see mixed results across our various served industrial end-markets, with strength during the quarter in iron and steel as well as chemicals and automotive. Equipment and machinery and lumber and building products were softer in the quarter relative to the average end-market. We continue to receive mixed and cautious feedback from our diversified customer base. However, our overall outlook for the year remains positive.
Current renewal rates for corporate accounts which represents approximately 45% of the business remain at historically high levels, which further validates the current strength of the Motion value proposition. We're seeing outsized growth in our offering to physically locate Motion teammates at customers' facilities to enable an even closer partnership. Motion's highly technical sales expertise and solution-based selling drives deep relationships with our customers and helps to keep our customers' operations moving every day.
Over the past 16 months, manufacturing PMI readings have experienced the longest period of contraction as represented by a PMI index below 50 since the financial crisis in 2009. Despite this, our Motion business has outperformed, driven by its customer and end-market diversification, business mix and strategic initiatives. Encouragingly, in March 2024 the manufacturing PMI was 50.3, representing an expansionary data point for the first time in 16 months. We obviously appreciate that one month doesn't make a trend, but we remain cautiously optimistic about the rest of the year and the medium-term outlook.
Turning to Industrial segment profit, which represents now 50% of GPC's total profit. In the first quarter, segment profit was $271 million, up 3% and 12.3% of sales, representing a 70 basis point increase from the same period last year. The team continues to execute category management and supply chain productivity initiatives and operate with discipline to deliver operating leverage and margin expansion despite lower sales.
Turning to the Global Automotive segment. Sales in the first quarter increased approximately 2% with comparable store sales essentially flat. Our international automotive businesses in Europe and Asia-Pac posted positive sales growth in local currency, while U.S. Automotive was flat and sales in Canada were down low single digits. As expected, global automotive sales inflation moderated to less than 1%, and we expect this to be the case throughout the remainder of the year.
Global Automotive segment profit in the first quarter was $273 million, up 3% and 7.6% of sales, representing a 10 basis point increase from the same-period last year, and a meaningful sequential improvement from the fourth quarter. Our first quarter results for Global Automotive segment reflects strong operating discipline and a positive initial impact that we're seeing from actions taken at our U.S. Automotive business. We are encouraged by the sequential improvement in this segment.
Now let's turn to our automotive business performance by geography. Starting in Europe, our automotive team delivered another solid quarter with total sales growth of 8% in local currency and comparable sales growth of 1%. Our team continues to deliver growth with key accounts, winning higher share of wallet with existing accounts and the further rollout of NAPA private label products across the region. The ongoing bolt-on acquisition activity continues to have a positive impact and create value.
In addition, during the quarter, our new national DC in France opened. This approximately 500,000 square foot distribution center represents a significant technology and automation upgrade within our local supply chain. This project is a great example of how we're investing to optimize our network to drive productivity and increased service levels to our customers. A similar project is well underway in the UK, and we're leveraging best practices and technologies to deliver the project efficiently.
In the Asia-Pac automotive business, sales in the first quarter increased 2% in local currency with comparable sales growth of 1%. Similar to last quarter, this performance compares to strong double-digit growth in the same period last year. Sales for both commercial and retail were up in the first quarter, with retail showing relative strength. Despite a challenging macro environment, the team is executing well to simultaneously deliver growth and expand operating margins.
In Canada, sales decreased approximately 1% in local currency during the first quarter, with comparable sales decreasing approximately 3%. Our Canadian team continues to focus on sales growth in excess of the market despite pressure from a more cautious consumer and an unseasonably mild winter. During the quarter, our automotive business saw positive sales growth in-line with our expectations, while our heavy vehicle business was slightly below, driven by softer-than-expected market demand.
In the U.S., automotive sales were essentially flat during the first quarter with comparable sales increasing approximately 1%. This represents a notable improvement from the fourth quarter in both reported and comparable sales. The first quarter performance was in-line with our expectations. As we move through the quarter, we saw sequential improvement in average daily sales growth each month. During the quarter, we also saw positive buying behaviors from our independent owners, a trend that we expect to continue over the course of the year.
From a customer segment perspective, sales to commercial customers in the quarter were slightly down, while sales to do-it-yourself customers were approximately flat. For commercial, Auto Care continued to outperform, while major accounts underperformed, driven by a cautious end consumer. We believe the in-flight actions across the business are delivering a positive impact and we expect the benefits to build throughout the year. Let me provide another quick update on some of the focus areas.
First, we experienced further improvement in our inventory fill rates during the first quarter. And as expected, our actions significantly improved our in-stock levels in both our stores and distribution centers. Second, our in-store service levels, as measured by customer service and on-time delivery metrics improved following the improvements we experienced in the fourth quarter.
Related to start the second quarter of 2024, we realigned certain field teams to help focus the field on key activities, deliver excellent customer service and generate sales growth. Our elevated focus on the stores and the field operations is having a measurable positive impact on our teammates. The team is energized and we've seen a notable reduction in employee turnover year-over-year. Finally, our supply chain teams are making significant operational improvements across our network. We've enhanced processes and procedures in our operations that are driving better safety, accuracy, service levels and operational efficiency, while simultaneously reducing errors and overtime.
During the quarter, we also made progress on medium-term strategic initiatives. For example, we continue to build upon our strategic pricing and sourcing initiatives that are delivering results. During the quarter, our newly expanded DC in Indianapolis went live. This 600,000 square foot facility will more efficiently service hundreds of independent and company-owned stores in the U.S., utilizing new automation and enhanced technology. We also leveraged our partnership with Google to accelerate enhancements to our search and catalog that remove friction and drive a better customer experience. The feedback on these technology improvements from our customers and teams has been exceptional, and we look forward to building on the momentum in the months and quarters ahead.
And finally, as announced on our fourth quarter call, we're advancing our initiative to evolve our operating model at U.S. Automotive, as we're being more intentional about owning more stores in selected priority markets. In parallel, we continue to partner with our existing network of independent owners who play an important role to help us serve our local markets. Our current in-flight initiatives are designed to improve growth and operations at both company-owned and independently-owned locations.
During the first quarter, we made strategic acquisitions of 45 NAPA stores from our independent owners, an increase from the 33 NAPA stores acquired in the fourth quarter and the 16 acquired in the first quarter of last year. We're leveraging our disciplined integration playbook as we integrate these stores into our own store base. We expect these trends to continue over the course of the year.
Our global teams are executing on our 2024 priorities and are focused on key strategic initiatives across our business. Last quarter, we announced a coordinated global initiative across each of our operations to further simplify and streamline our operations, improve productivity, increase our speed of service and reduce our cost to serve. Our efforts are on track, and Bert will go over the restructuring details in a moment.
In closing, GPC started 2024 well. We delivered first quarter results that exceeded our expectations. We're cautiously optimistic about a North America industrial recovery, we're seeing encouraging traction at U.S. Automotive, we're making progress on our long-term strategic initiatives, and we're confident in the revised outlook that we laid out for 2024. These results are only achieved with the hard work and dedication of each of our global teammates who take care of our customers, live our GPC values and focus to deliver performance. We remain committed to our plans for long-term growth and we're confident our teams are focused on the right strategic initiatives that will deliver solutions for our customers and create value. Thank you again to the entire GPC team.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Bert.
