The History of Gofer Parts

The Gofer Parts company has been in the making from as far back as the 1970’s. It was then that John Grace Jr. joined a select group of individuals who can claim to have pioneered the scrubber industry in some way, shape, or form.

It all started in Philadelphia, PA, where John Jr. spent much of his childhood tinkering with cars, lawnmowers and just about anything with an engine. Working at an A&P grocery construction site with his father-in-law, an A&P executive asked John if he could repair an auto scrubber at another store down the road. John gladly accepted. Although at the time, he was completely unaware that this one ad hoc job would eventually lead to his career in the floor care industry.

That one store led to a few and eventually the entire region of stores, within just a couple of years. It became a business, one in which he operated after school and between baseball practices. As his business grew, he learned that to provide the very best value for his customers, he would need to source parts on his own, outside of the existing floor care equipment vendors. The service company that he developed was the first of its kind to source, manufacture and provide replacement parts outside of the equipment manufacturers. Over the next couple of decades, the company grew to be known nationally and earned the business of many industry leading grocery chains.

After nearly three decades of a very enjoyable and successful career, John attempted to retire. He was completely unaware at the time that it was only “halftime”, and his son, John III would soon entice him back into the space just a few years later.

Given his father’s hard-working lifestyle, John III grew up around auto scrubbers, sweepers, burnishers and everything floor care. As a young man he worked on and off for his father, refurbishing DC motors and squeegees tools. Upon completing college, he moved on to explore another industry. However, this was brief as he noticed that many components used and found in this new industry were very similar to the ones, he used to refurbish machines for his father.

Intrigued, John III did some research and found that not only could he find cost-effective parts to offer, but that the floor care space needed modernization. Affordable parts were not easily located, and websites were not user friendly. It was then that John and John launched Gofer Parts. The idea was to create an organization that was fresh, young, and aggressive to advance the floor care parts space. Focus was on the technician. And the goal was to offer them tools to quickly locate parts at a cost savings to support their customers, providing them with quality replacement items that matched the quality of their service.

Today, Gofer Parts remains dedicated to this goal and this very same purpose is prominent in the company’s mission statement.

TO REDUCE THE COST OF PROFESSIONAL FLOOR CARE THROUGH INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS, STRONG RELATIONSHIPS, AND COMMITTED EMPLOYEES.­­­