The story of DuBois Marketing begins with Dave DuBois.  At the age of 26, after spending four years in the U.S. Navy and two years roofing, he began working for his cousins rewinding stators.  Dave loaded a truck once a week and went on the road, and when the stators were gone, he came home.  During this time, rebuilders were always asking Dave if he had any bearings, or 10SI regulators.  After he and his cousins decided to go their separate ways, he began getting his stators out of Canada and added a few new part numbers, the first being Torrington needle bearings. The garage of his house in Hudsonville, Michigan became a parts warehouse. It remained so until, as Dave puts it "The delivery trucks started knocking down the phone lines in the neighborhood".

The Step Van was the first delivery truck of DuBois Marketing. Dave carried most of his stock around in the van. He would visit customers and sell the parts right out of the back of the van. He spent many nights at KOA campgrounds sleeping in the van’s homemade bunk. After about a year of operating out of the garage, Dave’s mother Marguerite gave him a small lot next to her house to build a warehouse. The original building was 1,500 square feet. Dave's father, Mora, quit working for Steelcase and became the first employee.

In 1979, they bought a bigger delivery truck for the business, a Ford straight truck. Dave drove it for a while until he began to hire more employees. Mark Hoogterp and Rick Gerrits were two of the first employees of DuBois Marketing. They started out driving truck and sorting cores. Dave was free to go on the road every week just for sales.

They then put another large delivery truck on the road and soon realized that it was not practical. "We decided that we should stay in the parts business and leave the shipping to UPS," said Dave.  Both trucks were then taken off the road and sold.

Three additions were added on to the original building over the years. The final area of the building ended up to be about 20,000 square feet when all additions were finished.

Up until 1981 DuBois Marketing had a salesman on the road taking orders in person. This practice was much more costly than contacting customers by phone. Although the telephone is much more impersonal, it is possible to contact many more customers per day.

Some of you have also been with us since the beginning. Many of you probably still remember Dave’s visits in the step van. We would like to acknowledge our loyal customers who have been with us for many years. Without you, we wouldn’t be here today. We still serve many of the "Ma and Pa" shops around the country.  Our slogan has always been, "We don’t want to be the biggest, we want to be the best." This is not just a slogan, we really believe in this philosophy. We have grown gradually over the years and this approach to business has allowed us to keep in touch with the customer and maintain personal relationships.

Electrical rebuilding has its own niche within the automotive industry. If you have been in this business for any amount of time, you know that in the starter and alternator rebuilding industry, it’s a small world. If you’ve had a chance to attend any of the APRA or ERA shows over the years, maybe you’ve noticed that even between suppliers, competition is friendly. After being in the business for 28 years you get to know the competition. We respect our competition, and we respect your right to be able to choose from a number of different suppliers.

Most of our merchandise is produced by O.E. manufacturers and/or QS/ ISO 9000 certified production facilities. If you are unhappy with your parts for any reason you may return them for a full refund within one year after you buy it. See our Warranty Policy. Many suppliers have the same parts; the only difference is the service you receive. We try to make sure that the part you are looking for is sitting on our shelves waiting when you call, so it can be shipped out that day and get to you as soon as possible.

DuBois Marketing has grown at a steady pace since Dave started out in 1976. Through all the changes and challenges our company has seen, we have not lost sight of our goal, to be a full line starter and alternator parts supplier. Since 1997 we have been in a new, 36,000 square foot facility.  We now stock over 3000 part numbers, and that total grows by about 500 per year.  We will stock what our customers request.

With your help, we will be able to write the next chapter of the DuBois Marketing history in another twenty years. Thanks again for your continued support.