In honor of the 100th anniversary of her family business, Amanda Grappone Osmer wrote a book, “Grappone Automotive: The Founding,” which was published last month. “It’s about my great grandparents and their journey,” she says. Rocco Grappone and Emanuela d’Orlando each left southern Italy and immigrated to the United States with their families.
After they married, the couple bought a Gulf service station in Concord. A year later, the Grappone family acquired an Oldsmobile franchise. Today, Grappone Automotive Group has 380 employees with operations in Bow and Concord. Grappone Osmer is the fourth generation in the business and serves as its chief vision officer.
In recounting the past century, Grappone Osmer shares a few of the company milestones. “I’ve heard so many stories from my grandfather about the company’s role in saving rubber as part of the war efforts. They retreaded tires,” she says. In the 1960s, there was what she described as a messy, public split between two brothers—her grandfather, John, and his brother, Albert. The dispute over shares and a lawsuit led to her grandfather moving his business to Bow, while his brother stayed in Concord.
John Grappone’s business grew despite tough times like the gas crisis in the 1970s. “It was around that time we took on Mazda [1973] and Honda [1975]. Those Japanese cars that were better on fuel economy,” she says.
Her dad, Bob, and his brother, Allen, worked in the business for years, overseeing growth and expansion to 11 brands in the 1990s.
Grappone Osmer and her brother, Greg, were the only two in the family from their generation that went into the business. His death in 2015 from cancer at the age of 35 was a turning point for her. “I had to step back and really think about, ‘What am I doing? Why am I here?’” she says. “I decided I loved the people and want to be a good employer, and I do enjoy the work.”
Her father, who is the majority shareholder, retired 16 years ago after decades in the business. “I have three kids, and two are interested in the business,” she says. “I want to give them a blueprint to follow so they never have to wonder what the right thing to do is.”
While there aren’t any grand business plans in the works, Grappone Osmer will write the rest of the company’s history. Her other project—which was a year in the making—was hosting the “NH Bringing Back the Trades and Tradeapalooza 2024.”
The first of its kind event was held Nov. 15 to promote the trades to 4,000 high school and middle school students with keynote speaker Mike Rowe, host of the “Dirty Jobs” television show and advocate for skilled trades. A total of $105,000 in scholarships were awarded. “I wanted to know what could we do that’s over the top that will show the state how much we love them,”
she says.