Tenneco boss Andrew Sexton has spoken about the reorganisation of warehousing brought about by the integration of various brands from Federal Mogul.
“We have distribution centres in Birmingham and one in Bradford. We’re in the process of consolidating those so we can ship from one location” explained the Group VP and General Manager on a conference call to selected members of the UK trade press.. “We’re continuing to operate from both, but we’re transitioning to have one site that serves the aftermarket and one just OE. It’s a tactical project to implement, but for the most part we have achieved what we set out to do as part of the acquisition”.
READ: TENNECO ACQUIRES FEDERAL MOGUL
Mr. Sexton explained the goal was to bring all of the brands together as ‘one Tenneco’ instead of operating like a number of separate companies. He spoke of the need to ‘develop synergy to be profitable moving forward’ and admitted that the challenge had been to put the strategy in action as quickly as possible, following the takeover of Federal-Mogul by Tenneco in 2018.
He also explained how the new strategy meant that the brands occupied different segments of the market, meaning they would not cannibalize sales and would be of more interest to buying groups. For example, Ferodo pads are premium products, while Champion branded pads are unabashedly aftermarket quality.
According to Sexton, this differentiation has also helped with gap analysis across its wholesale customers. “We could see where we were getting a Walker sale, but no champion sale for example helped us cross-sell to our key customers”.
Not surprised as FM in the UK has been a basket case for years. Losing a fortune and lost any real relevance to the aftermarket. They could well drag Tenneco down to their level.