Not a chance IMO. NAPA retains the flexibility to shop it's business around from time to time and beat their suppliers down on price and/or quality levels. If Wix goes away it would be a fairly simple matter for NAPA to transition it's filter business over to Champion Labs, Baldwin or some combination of suppliers. NAPA does little if any in-house mfg., which probably makes sense. Running a parts distribution business is hard and is very different from running a product development and mfg. business.quote:
Maybe someone like NAPA will buy them
That seems unlikely as well. Baldwin/Hastings has focused almost exclusively on the heavy duty truck and equipment market where the technical demands are higher and the price pressures slightly less severe than in the consumer automotive segment. I'm sure they are looking at it, but it seems a long shot. For us the users Baldwin/Hastings/Wix would be a good marriage.quote:
Baldwin/Hastings buying Wix