Executive Interview with Tom Tecklenburg, VP of Sales and Marketing, Bendix Brakes North America - aftermarketNews

Executive Interview with Tom Tecklenburg, VP of Sales and Marketing, Bendix Brakes North America

This week we hear from Tom Tecklenburg, vice president of sales and marketing for Bendix Brakes North America. He joined the Bendix organization in November 2004 after the commitment by Honeywell to reinvest and reinvigorate the Bendix brand. Prior to joining the Bendix team, he spent 15 years working on the FRAM, Prestone and Autolite brands in numerous functional areas, including finance, supply chain, operations, sales and marketing. In his tenure, he has worked with customers in various channels including original equipment, auto and commercial vehicle aftermarket. Tecklenburg has spent the last two-plus years repositioning the Bendix brand while driving sales growth and improved profitability by utilizing his past experience and the Honeywell enablers of Six Sigma and Digital Works. Join us as Tecklenburg brings us up to speed on the future of the Bendix brand and the friction market in general.

TROY, MI — This week we hear from Tom Tecklenburg, vice president of sales and marketing for Bendix Brakes North America. He joined the Bendix organization in November 2004 after the commitment by Honeywell to reinvest and reinvigorate the Bendix brand. Prior to joining the Bendix team, he spent 15 years working on the FRAM, Prestone and Autolite brands in numerous functional areas, including finance, supply chain, operations, sales and marketing. In his tenure, he has worked with customers in various channels including original equipment, auto and commercial vehicle aftermarket. Tecklenburg has spent the last two-plus years repositioning the Bendix brand while driving sales growth and improved profitability by utilizing his past experience and the Honeywell enablers of Six Sigma and Digital Works.

Additionally, he is active in the industry. He was a presenter at the SAE Brake Colloquium in 2005 and was on the AASA Advisory Team that established the Marketing Executives Council, which will have its first meeting this month.

Tecklenburg received his master’s of business administration with a concentration in manufacturing from the University of Dayton, Ohio, and holds a bachelor of science degree in accounting from The Ohio State University .

Join us as Tecklenburg brings us up to speed on the future of the Bendix brand and the friction market in general.

The Bendix brand is now part of Honeywell Consumer Products Group (CPG), which also includes the FRAM, Autolite and Prestone brands. What does it mean for the Bendix brand to now be part of Honeywell CPG?

Honeywell continues to make the necessary investments in the Bendix brand, enabling it to prosper in the aftermarket for years to come. Merging us into the Consumer Products Group division is proof of that. Now that we have joined forces with the FRAM, Prestone and Autolite brands, we are afforded many synergies – in terms of training, research and development and resources. Honeywell Consumer Products Group and Honeywell Turbo Technologies, which together make up the Transportation Systems division of Honeywell, is more than a $4 billion business that combines and maintains R&D capabilities in both the U.S. and Europe and has a manufacturing footprint in more than 15 countries worldwide. These resources are now available to the Bendix brand.

What are the benefits for the Bendix brand to be part of CPG and conversely, what are the benefits for Honeywell CPG to be associated with the Bendix brand?

Coming from the FRAM, Prestone and Autolite brands and then being with the Bendix team prior to integrating it under one umbrella, I knew there were significant synergies. I believe we are communicating to the industry that we are committed to servicing them. We truly have an arsenal of products available for both the professional and do-it-yourself customer, including FRAM oil, air, transmission and fuel filters, Autolite spark plugs, ignition wire sets and lighting products, Prestone antifreeze and car care products, Holts car care (in Europe and Asia) and Bendix and Jurid friction material products.

There are many benefits to being merged under one umbrella. For instance, the Bendix and Jurid brands have much greater acceptance in global markets, specifically Europe and Asia. Whereas the other brands will be able to help us in our domestic marketing efforts, we will be able to assist them in their global outreach.

How does being part of the Consumer Products Group change the way Bendix goes to market? Is there more of an effort to reach motorists now, or are professional technicians still considered the ultimate end-user for Bendix Brakes?

One of the benefits of being more closely associated with the FRAM, Prestone and Autolite brands is their supply chain and logistics capabilities, which are key to servicing the retail segment of the aftermarket. On the other hand, the Bendix team is extremely well-versed in serving the traditional side of the business – WDs, jobbers and professional technicians. Our customer is ultimately the person who throws our box away so sharing our knowledge and expertise opens up more avenues for all the brands. Of course we would like to improve the recognition of the Bendix brand at all levels in the aftermarket, but our primary focus will always be the professional technician, and we have a number of ways that we service them – technical support, training programs, the Bendix Answerman just to name a few.

Speaking of the Answerman, how does he help the brand grow its business?

It’s not really a matter of growing our business but a matter of growing our customers’ business. Let’s face it, if repair shops can’t thrive in today’s competitive environment, then none of us will. That’s why it’s important to provide the proper support. The Bendix organization is known for selling high quality brake parts and accessories, so it’s crucial that we complement them with high-quality service and that’s where the Answerman team comes in. We understand that with rapid vehicle advancements, properly diagnosing repair issues isn’t always easy. That is why we provide technical support and training through our Stop Shop program, the Bendix Answerman team and the ASE-certified technicians we have on staff.

What has the Bendix brand been doing to adapt to the rapid changes in the friction market in recent years? How have changes in the marketplace impacted the brand?

We believe many of the changes in the marketplace are being driven by technological advancements and the globalization of the automakers. But our global footprint and OE pedigree have enabled us to develop friction formulas for all the vehicles on the road today, along with different specifications from Europe, North America and Asia, and that experience has allowed us to stay ahead of the aftermarket curve. We have invested heavily in product development and put much of our effort into solving issues related to noise, vibration, roughness and dust.

All of the Bendix friction materials are marketed as premium products. Do you see an economy line in the future?

We have what is referred to in the marketplace as good, better and best offerings. This provides our customers with a number of Bendix product options to choose from. Our “good” line is called Bendix Global and it features coverage for both domestic and import vehicles. This competitively-priced line carries the reputation and credibility of the Bendix name. But to answer your question, I do not see our organization participating in the low-end, “value line” offering as Bendix is a premium line by nature, and low-end products don’t have a strong enough value proposition to support R&D, product upgrades and services such as the Bendix Answerman.

Do you see any consolidation in your premium friction lines?

We’ve actually been realigning our friction offerings for 2007. There has been massive proliferation in SKU counts and we understand how difficult it is getting for today’s distributors to stock the right products. We wanted to eliminate unnecessary part duplication in the Bendix product line-up while still offering a complete package of friction material for our customers. The first thing we are doing is launching Bendix CQ ceramic brake pads. We merged our non-asbestos organic disc pads and our NAO Import Quiet pads into one line, packaged under the Bendix CQ product name. This enables us to better communicate the formula composition and position it against comparable NAO ceramics in the marketplace today. We’ll expand the line to include additional applications for vehicles already featuring NAO ceramic or where an upgrade to NAO ceramic is recommended.

The brand will still continue to offer its best-in-class Bendix CT-3 ceramic brake pads and its semi-metallic formulas: Bendix TitaniuMetallic II, IQ and Fleet MetLok brake pads.

The realignment of our friction products is designed to offer a better value proposition to our channel partners, enabling them to continue to grow and prosper.

Along those same lines, where do you see the friction market in general is heading in the next five or so years?

Friction is a hot category and one of the few growth sectors in the aftermarket. Ceramic friction growth will certainly continue to outpace semi-mets. In fact, research suggests that about half of all new vehicles sold have ceramic brake pads as original equipment. However, some automakers will continue to use semi-metallic friction on certain vehicle lines due to its characteristics. Changes to friction technology will continue into the future and we will use our global R&D capabilities, along with our strategic customer relationships, to offer the best value to our customers.

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