From a Fargo bus to a six-store network, Pat’s Auto Supply named 2025 Jobber of the Year
“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” Few people have the courage to utter these words, let alone admit to such a savvy business plan. But for Kenton Switzer, building Pat’s Auto Supply into Jobber News’ 2025 Jobber of the Year is less about analytics than it is about prioritizing customers — and yes, taking chances.
“One of the things we tell our managers is, ‘We create policy, procedure and rules, and it is up to you to know when to break them,’” said Switzer, president of Pat’s Auto Supply, headquartered in Grand Prairie, Alta. “Because we deal with people. They’re always going to find exceptions to the rules, and we’re cool with that. That’s an opportunity to shine.”
Switzer, along with business partners Kyle van Polen and Chris Funk, does not shy away from seizing an opportunity to shine.
From humble beginnings in 1955, Pat’s Auto Supply was founded when Pat Gorman started selling auto parts from an old Fargo bus, travelling from community to community throughout the Peace River region. In those early days, the automotive parts business was considerably simpler, with only about two filter numbers that fit virtually everything.
Gorman’s first employee was Switzer’s father, who would eventually become his partner. Together they built the business over approximately three decades, establishing Pat’s Auto Supply as the premier supplier of auto parts to northern Alberta and British Columbia. Their accolades include winning the Jobber of the Year Award in 1985, the second year the award was handed out.
Now, that legacy has been carried on by its latest generation of ownership. It which began when when Pat’s son, Dan Gorman, bought out the original partners. Under Dan’s leadership, the business began a new phase of strategic expansion. In 2004, Dan partnered with Switzer, bringing him back from Edmonton, where he attended post-secondary school, to help acquire the first location of this generation — a Bumper to Bumper store. This marked the beginning of a multi-location growth strategy.
Over the next few years, ownership transitioned through a joint venture with Uni-Select in 2008, which Switzer eventually bought out in 2009. Funk, vice president of sales and marketing, has been with the company for 17 years, and van Polen, vice president of operations, around 19 years, with a two-year hiatus.
The most transformative period came in 2013 with the implementation of a partnership model that fundamentally changed the company’s structure. Recognizing the loyalty and support of their key employees, the trio brought on partners at each branch location, creating a network of owner-operators.
This approach, which Switzer said he had long promised, reflected their belief in the real value of having invested owners running each location. Today, Pat’s Auto Supply operates six locations across Alberta and British Columbia, with plans to continue expanding the partnership model as new locations are added.
The company’s Grande Prairie location, which has served as a hub since 1979, has undergone continuous expansion with additions in the early 1980s, 2012, 2013 and 2019, demonstrating more than six decades of sustained growth and commitment to the region. Their next move will likely be a larger warehouse just outside of Grande Prairie, which could see everyone under one roof.
The journey
Even with all the success over the years, looking back, Switzer wonders how he got here.
“I fell into it,” he said. “When I moved away to finish school, I swore I was never moving back to Grande Prairie and was never selling auto parts for a living. Turns out, I enjoy it. I love the business end of it. People are great and terrible, all at the same time.”
At the time, Switzer was looking for his own auto parts store in the Calgary, Okotoks and High River, Alta., areas when the Bumper to Bumper store in Grande Prairie became available.
“I was a little bit floored,” he said. “My dad had just been diagnosed with cancer, and I was like, ‘Well, I could take my young family there and be around my dad, who was a huge mentor to me, and let my kids get a chance to know him.’ My wife was pregnant at that time, so we decided to make the jump.”
As it turns out, not only was that the right decision, but years later he would learn that the passion for auto parts supply runs in the family.
Having raised three children, Switzer has now reached the point in his life where his influence has become evident — something he did not expect.
“Of my three kids, I thought Damon was the most likely to go to university and be an engineer or something like that,” Switzer admitted. “He’s 21 now. He started out doing the grunt work like I used to do and he’s on our counter now, asking questions that 20-year managers aren’t asking. He’s really trying to understand the business.”
For van Polen, the journey to Pat’s Auto also ran through family, but that was not necessarily a good thing back in the day.
“I had an uncle who used to work here. He was a sales guy. He always talked really highly of Pat’s, and I always wanted to work here, but I wasn’t hired on for at least a couple years because the policy is ‘we don’t hire family,’” said van Polen, adding that his son also worked for the company before going to university.
After becoming a parts person and working for several companies in the area, van Polen’s uncle — who was Switzer’s predecessor — took him out for lunch and finally gave him his shot at Pat’s Auto. Following his two years away from Pat’s, van Polen returned, going from the counter to sales, branch manager, Alberta operations manager, and now vice-president of operations.
Since the age of 12, Funk has been in the automotive industry. Starting at Canadian Tire sweeping floors, to tire repair and ultimately management, Funk soon found a friendship with one of the salespeople at Pat’s, who told him of a sales opportunity with the company.
“I wasn’t really interested because I’d been with a big company my entire life,” said Funk. “That sense of security was really what I needed at the time, so the idea of going to a smaller, family-run business wasn’t very appealing to me.”
But they made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“The one thing he said that’s always stuck with me until this day was, ‘In six months, you’ll tell me it’s the best decision of your life, and you’ll never regret it,’” said Funk. “Sure enough, at six months I was like, ‘Man, this is the best decision.’”
Since joining Pat’s Auto in 2008, Funk has worked in outside sales, run the Dawson Creek and Fort St. John branches, been general manager of the B.C. operations and, since returning to his hometown of Grande Prairie, now holds the role of vice-president of sales and marketing.
The market
With locations in Grande Prairie, Grimshaw, Hinton and Peace River, Alta., and Dawson Creek and Fort St. John, B.C., Pat’s Auto has approximately 1,200 active accounts, with 120 in the Pat’s Auto Advantage program, which was created with help from customers.
“As good as the program is, launching it was one of the most beneficial things we ever did because we sat down with all these guys,” said Switzer. “I think they just appreciated being able to sit down with us and have a conversation about it, showing that we care. We wanted to know what they want and tailor something to them.”
Currently, about 30-35 per cent of Pat’s customers are do-it-yourselfers, with the remainder professional installers and fleet operators.
“When the economy is really good, booming and hopping, we see more parts going through the back door to the installers,” said Switzer. “If the economy’s a little shaky, more people are coming in doing their own work, and we see our retail go up.”
A bright future
For someone who proclaims not to be entirely happy unless they are a little bit busier than they should be, keeping an eye on future possibilities comes naturally.
There’s also a balance between using analytical skills and trusting your gut when it comes to expanding a company like Pat’s Auto.
“When the right time comes along, you just kind of know,” said Switzer. “When you’ve been doing this this long, you can actually rely on gut. I was never that guy — I was always very analytical, crunched the numbers. But as it turns out, you crunch the numbers enough, gut starts to be just as good.”
Past experiences certainly play a role when it comes to Switzer, van Polen and Funk trusting their instincts. Those experiences have helped them adjust and modify their approach when it comes to expansion and making solid business decisions — particularly during a time when the global supply chain and ever-changing tariffs are so unpredictable.
“We have a lot of different sources, often for the same product. The fact that we’re ordering our own stuff direct from China is huge,” Switzer explained. “That was life-changing for us. But we have good partners locally so we don’t have to get it all from China, just our fast-moving numbers.”
“The current rounds of tariffs have way less impact than the last ones did, because when the last ones happened, Canadian distributors started pulling directly from China instead of going through the U.S. This forced us to do better, and now we’re doing better.”
That strong foundation means Switzer and company are looking to see what the future holds for Pat’s Auto Supply — and on that horizon, they see an opportunity to go more rural.
“We see a lot of people in rural areas trying to retire and get out, and those are good opportunities for us to go in,” said Switzer. “We’re looking at doing some more stores, maybe not in 2025 … but probably 2026. There’s lots of opportunity out there.”
Teeing it up
For the past 15 years, Pat’s Auto has held an annual golf tournament, this past year at the Grande Prairie Golf and Country Club in support of the MS Society of Canada.
“We’ve sold out now for six years straight — 144 golfers. Vendors from all over Canada and the U.S. come up to support us,” said Funk. “Nothing but great positive feedback all the time. It’s just a great time for sure.”
Some of the companies that have sponsored the event include Bestbuy Distributors, Dayco, Telus Business, TD Bank, Autoline and BBB Industries.
“It started as a staff golf tournament where we just got together and took the staff out for golf. Then it turned into some customers, and then some reps came,” said van Polen. “Now it’s grown to a full two-day affair.”
Since 2016, the golf event has raised around $62,000 for the MS Society of Canada.
Whether it’s through their business motto, how they support staff, raising money for charity or what they want the company to look like in the future, if there is one key to the success of Pat’s Auto Supply, the answer is simple — focus on people.
“I think that’s probably true of almost any business,” said Switzer. “That’s customers, staff and yourself to a certain degree. We took some massive leaps early on, and that’s made all the difference in the world for us. We were ordering container-load product before a lot of the WD distributors in Canada were doing it.”
But there is no place in the automotive aftermarket industry for those who are not willing to take chances. For the group at Pat’s Auto, their approach has always been an aggressive acquisition strategy with significant personal financial risk.
“Fear is a great motivator,” said Switzer. “When you have your ass hanging on the line all the time, it motivates you to do better.”
This article originally appeared in the November 2025 issue of Jobber News
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