Next month, aftermarketNews will feature in its entirety our exclusive interview with Jose Maria Alapont, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Federal-Mogul. Alapont and other Federal-Mogul executives met with Counterman/aftermarketNews Publisher Jon Owens and Counterman Editor Brian Cruickshank on Tuesday at the AAPEX show in Las Vegas, where they spoke at length about Federal-Mogul’s emergence from bankruptcy, the current state of the industry and what Alapont thinks Federal-Mogul’s future brand lineup will look like, long- and short-term.

The exclusive interview with Alapont addressed a number of important issues, including industry globalization, the evolution of branding and balancing product focus in both the OE and aftermarket segments. A leading manufacturer and marketer supplying both the original equipment and replacement parts industries, Federal-Mogul is exhibiting with a display reflecting its new tagline, “Driving OE Technology and Aftermarket Solutions.”

Alapont joined Federal-Mogul in early 2005. Prior to that, he served as CEO of IVECO, the commercial vehicle division of the Fiat Group. In the past 18 months, he has been simultaneously leading the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while also forging the future of the company. In the interview, Alapont said it was important to separate the process of emerging from Chapter 11 from developing a world class global company. In the end, he said, it ended up being very efficient to keep those two very important goals separate.

“The most important thing in our industry is to have the right strategy,” Alapont said. “Building a global, world-class team is a priority but it is challenging.”