Trico buys Fram/Autolite

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c502cid

c502cid

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From Aftermarket News:

The Trico Group of Rochester Hills, MI has acquired the FRAM Group — composed of the Fram filters and Autolite Spark Plugs brands — from Rank Group Ltd. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Management sees the filter category as a complement to the wiper products in the company's "maintenance" offering, while Autolite adds to its "Repair Parts" product line of fuel pumps, water pumps and lift supports. #aftermarket #autoparts #autocare #automotive #filters #wipers
 
Potentially a good thing? Rank Group is based in New Zealand and Fram/Autolite were their only automotive acquisitions.

Trico on the other hand has been in the wiper blade business for a long time, and they are US based so who knows.
 
Trico has a lot of subcontractors in Mexico and Autolite is HUGE in Mexico, people over there just buy Autolite parts-- it has a good reputation over there and plants are there already.

It is a good business move.
 
https://www.aftermarketnews.com/trico-group-acquires-fram-and-autolite/

"We are excited to enhance our product portfolio with these two leading brands," said Jay Burkhart, president of TRICO Group. "The filter category is a natural complement to our wiper products as our ‘Maintenance' offering, while Autolite adds to our ‘Repair Parts' product line of fuel pumps, water pumps and lift supports."
In January, TRICO Group acquired UCI International's Performance Pumps business, comprised of ASC Industries and Airtex Products.
With these two acquisitions, TRICO Group now supplies aftermarket and OE customers with a portfolio of filters and wiper products, as well as spark plugs, lift supports, fuel pumps and water pumps. Premium brands of TRICO Group now include TRICO wipers, Carter fuel pumps, ANCO wipers, Airtex fuel pumps, StrongArm lift supports, Autolite spark plugs and FRAM filters.
 
Never seen mergers be a good thing for the consumer or employees. True in my case when Tenneco bought Federal Mogul.
 
I guess I better stock up on ultras now. Let the cost cutting overseas production begin. This has happened before to Fram.

Rod
 
Big mergers, like everything else, have winners and losers. Oftentimes the buyer thinks they can "do better" with their management philosophy.
Quality can suffer if the buyer does not correctly understand the buyee company.

Time will tell. Big mergers are the world today. Get used to it.
 
Originally Posted by incognito_2u
Hey...….Don't we have a member of BITOG that is an executive of FRAM? Maybe he can chime in and let us know the scoop!


His username is Motorking
smile.gif
 
It is probably better to have Trico owning Fram over the long term than a private investment group with little interest in the automotive market. Mergers can be a bad thing for workers though, so I hope they don't move manufacturing overseas. However, since Trico doesn't currently make filtration products or anything that Autolite makes, there should be less worry about jobs getting cut due to redundancies than if a more direct competitor (such as another filter maker) had acquired Fram.

The good thing here is that this transaction doesn't remove a competitor from the market like so many mergers tend to do.

Rank sold Prestone a few years ago, so this isn't any huge surprise.
 
Rank's holdings seem to be in the Australian/Kiwi building materials market and packaging as they bought out Tenneco's packaging division and the consumer division of Reynolds Aluminum.

I'm guessing Mr. Hart doesn't see the automotive holdings in synergy with building materials and consumer goods. Rank Group was also involved in food. Prestone/Holts is now part of KIK Products, a major competitor to Clorox for the consumer bleach market and a major supplier of home care/personal care products to brand names and house labels.
 
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many years ago i worked at J.I. Case , owned by Tenneco, in the experimental dept. i was working with an engineer on noise abatement on trenchers. Tenneco owned Walker muffler. but we didnt get any discount on mufflers. so heres an other NON interesting story. once some big shots from Tenneco came to inspect our place. one of them ask for a ladder and tape measure. he claimed the ladder and said the Tenneco sign was the wrong size. they had specs on the sign size. so that when ever you looked at a Tenneco sign it always looked the same.
 
Originally Posted by incognito_2u
Hey...….Don't we have a member of BITOG that is an executive of FRAM? Maybe he can chime in and let us know the scoop!

If he's smart, he'll ignore any requests for info or copy and paste the publicly posted info or direct you to Rank's 'public relations' group for comment.

There's a Fram manufacturing plant nearby. Going to check the local newspaper's website to see if it says anything....
 
Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Originally Posted by incognito_2u
Hey...….Don't we have a member of BITOG that is an executive of FRAM? Maybe he can chime in and let us know the scoop!


His username is Motorking
smile.gif


Jay (AKA Motorking) is a Technical Director for Fram/Autolite, not an executive.

He probably does not know much more than what is posted online, and if he knew more, probably could not say anything.

Hopefully if changes are coming he can give us a heads up.
 
Good to know. I had issues with a Trico wiper blade rebate a little over a decade ago and haven't used them since :)
 
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