More departures from CARQUEST top our list of the week’s top news as Craig Barnes joins Delphi. Delphi Product & Service Solutions announced on Wednesday that Barnes will join Delphi effective July 1 as the company’s new vice president of the global independent aftermarket. He is the former senior vice president of merchandising, pricing, global sourcing, marketing and inventory and demand planning at CARQUEST. In his new role at Delphi, Barnes will be responsible for growing the global independent aftermarket business with a strong focus on the customer with regard to all aspects of the business including parts, diagnostics and service solutions.
In other top news this week, O’Reilly Automotive updated its guidance for the second quarter of 2012. O’Reilly lowered its second quarter comparable store sales guidance to 2 percent to 2.5 percent from its previous estimate of 3 percent 5 percent. O’Reilly’s management also announced that second quarter 2012 EPS will likely come in at the low end of the previously announced $1.13-$1.17 guided range.
Following this news, BB&T Capital Markets issued an analyst report on the auto parts retailer and questioned whether recent weakness is a reflection of macro instability for O’Reilly. Despite weather-related softness in April, BB&T said it believes long-term fundamentals for O’Reilly "appear robust."
In the OE segment this week, Chevrolet announced that it will recall 413,418 Chevy Cruzes in the United States for the 2011 and 2012 model years to modify the engine shield under the vehicle. This change will help prevent any liquids from being trapped in the engine compartment, where a fire could start and spread. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary investigation in April as a result of two engine compartment fires in 2011 model year Cruzes and later added the 2012 model year. There are no known crashes, injuries or fatalities reported in conjunction with the recall.
Last in our look back at the week’s top industry news, we learn that Nick Kokkinos has joined the RPS Marketing team in Southern California. Kokkinos has more than 30 years of experience in the automotive aftermarket, and joins RPS from DENSO, where he spent the past two years serving as district sales manager. Prior to DENSO, Kokkinos was with Federal-Mogul.
