Under normal circumstances, this article would have been an industry profile about Precision International. Instead, the good folks at Precision asked us to give their spot to one of their longtime customers, Transmission Parts Unlimited, Inc. As TPU began to tell their story they couldn’t help but reflect on the story of Big Joe and honor him for his contribution to the industry. Although Joe Armistead Sr. retired about 10 years ago, his passing last year reminds us of the legacy and traditions he left behind. It’s our pleasure to pass on Big Joe’s story in recognition of his service to our industry.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Joe’s dream began humbly, growing up on the poor east side of Atlanta. His early life didn’t include many luxuries, but that reality motivated him. He believed in the American Dream, often saying, “Anybody can become anything they want if they work hard enough.” He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but he was willing to do whatever it took to better himself.
Joe learned the value of relationships early on. He developed a friendship with Mr. G, a local liquor store owner in Atlanta’s Blair Village district. Mr. G was fond of Joe and believed in him, knowing he was a person of integrity, and he believed Joe would become a success at whatever he chose to pursue.
According to Joe’s daughter, MJ, “Joe loved the sound of an engine, and transmission gears turning made his heart race.” He decided to make some money by buying and selling transmission cores – core peddling, as it was called back then. He needed some seed money to get started, and on a handshake, Mr. G would lend him small amounts with low interest. Joe always repaid the loans, as agreed, and Mr. G was happy to help.
So, with a pick-up truck and a few bucks, Joe was in business as a core peddler and on his way to becoming Big Joe. While the details regarding Big Joe’s early exploits vary depending on the source, the story remains consistent. He’d travel the Southeast from Ohio to New Orleans buying cores just about anywhere he could find them. His core customers included the likes of APD, Altran in New York, and various shops in Atlanta.
But as Joe’s business grew, Mr. G told Joe that his business had grown enough that it was time to start a banking relationship. With Mr. G’s help, Joe was able to get a bank loan. As a testimony to Joe’s loyalty, he kept that banking relationship no matter how big the bank got or how many times it was acquired by larger banks. Joe’s loyalty in all relationships became one of his trademarks. He’d say, “They gave me my start in business.” Joe’s daughter, MJ, recalled, “He honored that. That’s how Dad was – fair and loyal.”
With the help of Dick Anderson, the company really started to take off. Big Joe focused on finding and buying cores, and Dick took on finding shops and resellers to buy them.
It wasn’t long before the supply exceeded the demand for the cores. Being resourceful, Joe moved the business from a truck to a backyard. Thus began the story of Transmission Parts Unlimited.
Big Joe opened the first business location in a rented building in Mountain View, Georgia, in the mid-seventies. TPU purchased a building and incorporated it in 1979.
The business flourished under Big Joe’s down-to-earth approach and his belief in people. Joe believed a handshake and a smile was sufficient for making a deal. For Joe, a person’s honor was their word, and that meant everything. He believed everyone deserved a chance to prove themselves.
The core and major hard parts recycling business soon grew into hard parts rebuilding, and with the addition of soft parts and kits, TPU became a full-service parts supplier. Times have changed since the early years. Back then, you just needed a good stock of C-4’s, C-6’s, 350’s, 400’s, and Torque Flites. Of course, those weren’t the only transmissions, but they were the most popular.
Once TPU started selling hard parts, kits, and soft parts, customers could easily get the setup they needed – 2 drums, a pump, some bushings, and a rebuild kit with clutches and steels. Most torque converters didn’t have clutches, and they simply needed to be flushed. Delivery service wasn’t even thought of then. As the business grew, UPS was the driving force for delivery along with local customer pick-up.
Today, as always, Precision International is our exclusive kit supplier and in since July 2017 we proudly sell only Precision of New Hampton torque converters – the best in the industry.
On the administrative side, Joe’s wife Martha kept the books and took care of finances until she passed away in 1988. The invoices were 2-part, hand-written forms with carbon between them. She’d keep one copy, and the customer would take the other. Any older accountants out there will remember the green ledger columnar pads. That’s how records were kept, and customer accounts were tallied. It was a big job taking care of that end of the business in those days – payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, sending out billing statements, and doing all the bookkeeping.
Big Joe pressed on by surrounding himself with quality, hardworking people who believed in the premise, “We don’t just sell parts, we serve customers.” To Big Joe, employees were like family, sharing time together outside of work. Joe would take employees to ballgames, and he’d put on grill-outs at his home. Big Joe was also an astute businessman.
Joe Jr. decided to open another location in Marietta, and it grew in leaps and bounds. This decision really paid off in 2008 when the Ellenwood location burned to the ground. Thanks to Joe’s decision to open a second location, we were able to transfer our operations to the Marietta store.
Our employees hung in during the crisis. We worked as a family unit to make things happen. Many drove the 30-plus miles to work at the Marietta store while hard parts worked out of a hot trailer in Ellenwood. It was quite a sight to see how the team continued to work for our customers and continue to supply parts as our customers had come to expect from us.
“Our vendors and suppliers were great allies during this time as well. Many of our vendors, including Precision International, Raybestos, Rostra, Sonnax, Stellar, and several more, helped rush products to us to get our shelves re-stocked and worked with us as we went through the horrific process. DACCO even loaned us trailers and cargo containers to temporarily set up our hard parts departments. We never missed a beat. Our customers stayed loyal to us too.
The catastrophe of the fire once again allowed TPU to branch out and flex their tenacity. Within six months, they purchased a new building, and TPU was back to normal.
Since Big Joe’s passing last year, his two children, Joe Jr. and MJ, continue to manage the company’s operations. Loyalty, honesty, fairness, friendships, and integrity remain the foundation stones that TPU was built on. Even though Big Joe is gone, those fundamental principles still guide TPU today. The old way of doing business with a handshake and a smile didn’t leave when Big Joe did. He left behind a legacy, employees, and children to run the business instilled with the same principles and integrity that he had, MJ added, “I think our business culture is the reason why so many people who do business with TPU feel like family. Our relationships with suppliers, employees, and customers have sustained us in tough times, including the 2008 fire that would’ve surely shut down anybody else.”
THE TPU TRADITION
You can give someone with character work experience, but you can’t give them character no matter how much experience they have. Find people with character and build on that.
Other philosophies that drive TPU tradition:
- Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Try to use them for the good of the whole team.
- We don’t just sell parts. We serve customers.
- The little things no one else has, we come up with for our customers.
- Customers aren’t just a number. When people do business with TPU, everybody feels like family.
- In the early days Big Joe would say, “the price is what the price is”.
- Over the years TPU developed its pricing model, “We don’t lower the price to get your business today and raise it when you’re not looking. Our prices are based on cost, not on how much we can get. This way, customers always know they’re getting a fair price”.
- If it’s for an automatic transmission, we have it.
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT BIG JOE
Perhaps the best measure of a man’s legacy is what others say about him after he’s gone. Here are a few observations from Big Joe’s family and employees.
- Joe Sr. would sometimes give accounts to people that our competitors wouldn’t. He knew where he came from, and he never forgot that. So, he would give chances to people that others wouldn’t.
- Dad taught us to always be fair, even if that meant being fairer to the other person than I was to myself. Only later in life did I realize that mentality lent itself to our company as a whole and the way we do business here every day.
- Even though he passed away last year, his basic principles didn’t leave with him. They left behind a legacy, and those basic guiding principles made us who we are today and who we will continue to be.
- He assisted others to a higher level, both personally and professionally.
- He was always sentimental to core peddlers when they were struggling. That’s where he started. Sometimes he’d pay more for a transmission because he knew where he came from.
- Big Joe invested in people. Not just professionally but personally.
- Being fairer to others than you are to yourself at times. But in the long run, that pays off. That’s the kind of guy he was, and that’s what TPU was built on.
- The success of our business depends on the success of our customers and we know that.
Since its modest beginnings in the early 1970s, Transmission Parts Unlimited has grown and transitioned with the industry. With the vast numbers of transmissions today, TPU has increased its inventory and offers daily deliveries in metro Atlanta and the surrounding areas 3 times a day. A night route is provided to customers all over Georgia. TPU services over 2,000 customers and stocks about 50,000 different parts in addition to a vast supply of hard parts. The company states, “This industry has a lot of competition, and to stay alive, you need a competitive advantage. And that’s just what we’ve got after over 40 years in the business. We don’t just sell parts; we know about transmissions.”
