PHILADELPHIA -- Recon Automotive Remanufacturers has announced a new initiative to increase availability and reduce delivery times for its most popular engines, while instituting a comprehensive program to hold down manufacturing costs in order to sustain Recon's very competitive pricing structure.

As part of this new initiative, Recon has established a new warehousing and distribution facility in Texas. A site has been selected, the location will be announced as soon as leasing and staffing negotiations are complete, and the facility will begin shipping engines this summer. This new distribution facility will supplement Recon's existing distribution centers in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, and will shorten delivery times to customers in the South Central and Central areas of the country, according to the company.

In addition, Recon will be relocating the remanufacture of many of its most popular engines to its facility in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The company said it has been adding state-of-the-art machinery and training programs there, and it has now become the company's most efficient remanufacturing facility.

Recon has also completed a comprehensive analysis of inventory and order fill, and has taken steps to add inventory and speed availability of its most popular engines. Recon's product analysts have identified the 20 percent of their part numbers that account for roughly 80 percent of their sales and will be adding inventory of these fast-moving engines in both their east and west-coast distribution centers, as well as stockpiling significant inventory in their soon-to-be opened Texas distribution facility. Overall inventories of selected slower-moving part numbers will be reduced, but Recon will ship these less-popular products from any warehouse where they are in stock, without shipping penalty, in order to accommodate customer needs.

Another element of Recon’s initiatives to improve efficiency is the creation of a “Rapid Response Team” at its Philadelphia headquarters. This team is tasked with sourcing cores and providing finished remanufactured engines for any unusual or out-of-stock engine. This team will have extensive flexibility in sourcing any needed item, will have full access to all equipment, parts and technology throughout the Recon system, and will report directly to Recon CEO Vincent Mancini.

"We have been carefully analyzing our sales patterns as the marketplace evolves," said Mancini. "As a result, we are about to open a new warehousing and distribution facility in Texas, and plan to open another such facility before the year is out. We realize that reassigning more engine remanufacturing to our plant in Mexico will necessarily result in reductions in our workforce here. But the realities of a global economy and the needs of our customers dictate that we be cost-competitive along with being able to quickly deliver the highest-quality engines possible, and this series of steps will help assure our continued competitive posture in the engine business.

"As we have done throughout our 30-plus years, we will continue to assess the needs of our customers and adjust our business model whenever necessary to meet the needs of an evolving marketplace. We have always provided the industry's best engines, best customer service and technical support and best warranty protection for our customers. By taking these and other steps now, we will be able to continue to set standards for the engine remanufacturing industry while remaining cost-competitive and assuring our customers attractive profit margins for engine sales and installation."

For more information about Recon Automotive, visit: http://www.reconengines.com.