To get an idea of how long Grappone Automotive Group has been selling cars and trucks, just consider what the dealership once took as a trade-in.
“Once we took a horse in trade during a ‘Push It, Pull It, Tow It’ event at one of our dealerships,” said Amanda Grappone Osmer, who is the fourth generation of the Grappone family to head up the now 100-year-old dealership.
Today, Grappone Automotive Group in Bow, New Hampshire is a multi-franchise auto group with 380 team members and a leadership team focused on serving their guests and community with integrity, kindness, and respect.
A Family Legacy Set in Stone
The Grappone family story begins in the late 1800s, when Rocco Grappone and Emanuela d’Orlando emigrated separately from southern Italy, and met and married in America.
Like many first-generation immigrants, Rocco and Emanuela’s early years in America were not easy, and are a testament to the resiliency and fortitude of the newly married couple.
Carrying on a family tradition, Rocco worked as a stone cutter in the quarries while Emanuela managed the growing family, keeping a large garden and livestock to help keep food on the table.
By 1924, the couple had saved just enough to buy a Gulf service station in Concord, NH. From the beginning, family sacrifice and hard work were integral parts of the Grappone business.
“Emanuela and her daughters, Helen and Minnie Grappone, went to work at a local factory that made components for Model Ts. They helped to save up enough money to buy the station,” Osmer said. “Emanuela was an Italian immigrant like her husband, and she never learned to read or write. On the bank's paperwork allowing the Grappones to purchase the gas station, her signature is a simple X.”
From there, the Grappone family started servicing cars, and by 1927, they had acquired an Oldsmobile distributorship. Over the ensuing decades the Grappone family added other franchises and eventually the operations were turned over to his sons, James, John, Robert, and Albert.
By the 1960s, John and two of his brothers were embroiled in a lawsuit over ownership shares. John Grappone – Osmer’s grandfather -- moved his business to Bow, while his brothers stayed in Concord.
Under John Grappone, the company grew. During the 1970s, around the time of a major fuel embargo, John Grappone started adding more fuel-efficient, Japanese-made cars to the dealership mix, including the Toyota, Mazda, and Honda.
John Grappone’s sons, Bob and Allen, grew the family business even further, expanding the Grappone Automotive Group to 13 brands by the 1990s. After more than four decades in the automotive industry, Bob retired in 2008, turning the day-to-day running of the business over to a management team and his son, Greg and daughter, Amanda.
Staying True to Her Roots
For Amanda, working in the dealership was her destiny. “As a little kid, I always wanted to walk to work with my grandfather [John Grappone],” Amanda said. “One day, he said I could. About 300 yards into his three-mile daily journey to work, I complained that I was tired. He picked me up and carried me the rest of the way, but he never let me walk to work with him again.”
Amanda and her brother Greg worked together side-by-side at the dealership until Greg passed away in 2015 at the age of 35 after a long battle with cancer.
As the current head of the company, Osmer is not only tasked with the stewardship of the family business – at least one of her three children is interested in following in her footsteps – she’s also made sure to carry on the Grappone family tradition of giving back to the community.
“We donate at least 5% of our company’s net profit each year to charitable endeavors and we're longtime supporters of hundreds of organizations from the Boys’ and Girls’ Club to New Hampshire PBS to Lakes Region Conservation Trust,” Osmer said.
To celebrate its 100-year anniversary, Grappone Automotive sent 100 team members into the community for a day of service and donated $250 to the team members’ chosen organization at the end of the day.
“We also gave 100 team members a $100 gift card to surprise people in their communities who are making a positive difference,” Osmer said.
There was also a celebration where each of Grappone Automotive’s 380 team members were given a book, written by Amanda Osmer. “Grappone Automotive: The Founding” offers a glimpse into the early days of the Grappone and D’Orlando families, their journey to New Hampshire, and the origins of the Grappone Automotive Group.
The 100th anniversary celebration also included a skilled trades career fair that was even attended by “Dirty Jobs” host, Mike Rowe, who addressed a crowd of more than 4,000 middle and high schoolers. The event was co-sponsored by Grappone Automotive as a way of saying thank you to the community that has supported their family business for 100 years in New Hampshire.
