O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY) FY2025 results: revenue $17.8 billion, up 6.4% on the year

O'Reilly Automotive is one of the largest specialty retailers of automotive aftermarket parts, tools, supplies, equipment and accessories in North America, selling to both do-it-yourself customers and professional service providers, an approach it calls its dual market strategy. It was founded in 1957 by Charles F. O'Reilly and his son from a single store in Springfield, Missouri, and has traded on Nasdaq since 22 April 1993. On 10 June 2025 it completed a 15-for-1 forward stock split. At 31 December 2025 it operated 6,447 stores in 48 states and Puerto Rico, 112 stores in Mexico and 26 in Canada.

What the stores sell

New and remanufactured hard parts and maintenance items including alternators, batteries, brake components, belts, chassis and driveline parts, engine parts, fuel pumps, hoses, starters, temperature control, water pumps, antifreeze, appearance products, engine additives, filters, fluids, lighting, oil and wiper blades, plus accessories such as floor mats, seat covers and truck accessories. Stores also provide services including battery diagnostic testing and recycling of used oil, oil filters and batteries. Inventory levels and assortment in each store are refined using sales movement tracked by the inventory control system, vehicle registration data for the market, failure rates and management's reading of trends.

The dual market strategy

In 2025 approximately 50% of sales came from do-it-yourself customers and approximately 50% from professional service providers. The company states that sales to professional customers have historically grown faster, because that side of the market is more fragmented and offers more room for consolidation, and it supports that side with approximately 825 full-time sales staff dedicated solely to calling on and servicing professional customers. Serving both groups from the same stores lets it operate in less densely populated areas that would not support a chain selling only to retail customers, and gives do-it-yourself customers access to the broad inventory and product knowledge that professionals require.

Distribution

A regional, tiered distribution network of distribution centres and hub stores, with inventory management and distribution systems linking each store electronically to one or more centres. There are 32 distribution centres, typically giving stores same-day or overnight access to over 156,000 stock keeping units, many of them hard-to-find items other retailers do not stock. On top of that sit 399 hub stores, which deliver and give same-day access to an average of 63,000 units for stores around them, with hubs in selected markets carrying up to approximately 115,000. More than 95% of stores receive multiple same-day deliveries and weekend deliveries of hard-to-find parts from the centres and hubs.

Competition

The market is described as highly competitive on customer service, product availability, store location, brand recognition and price. Named competitors are national retail and wholesale chains including AutoZone, Advance Auto Parts, CARQUEST and NAPA; regional chains; wholesalers and jobber stores, some tied to national distributors or associations such as NAPA, CARQUEST, Bumper to Bumper and Auto Value; car dealers; and mass merchandisers and online retailers carrying replacement parts, including Wal-Mart Stores and Amazon.com. The company notes that the dual market strategy is capital-heavy, requiring both the distribution and store networks and the working capital to hold inventory for both sets of customers.

People

The company employed 92,923 team members at 31 January 2026: 78,258 full-time and 14,665 part-time, of whom 76,467 worked in stores, 11,649 in distribution centres and 4,807 in corporate and regional offices. The full-time share of the workforce has risen from 65% at 31 January 2020 to 84% at 31 January 2026, which the company links to the increasingly technical nature of the business and its need for knowledgeable parts people. Its stated philosophy is to promote from within, and the filing reports 33 consecutive years of record results and positive comparable store sales since the company became public in April of 1993.

From O'Reilly Automotive's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 27 February 2026: read the full 10-K.