Modine Wins High Volume Condenser Program from PSA
Modine Manufacturing Co. has received the largest condenser order in the company’s 88-year history, from the European automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen. The condensers will be used in several models for PSA, which has been one of the fastest-growing carmakers in the past five years. Modine will start production in 2006 for the anticipated $15 million order, approximately half of which represents incremental business. The air conditioning condensers will be manufactured in a highly specialized facility in Austria, which started in 1984 as a joint venture.
Tenneco Automotive Names Two New VPs
Tenneco Automotive has named James Perkins as vice president and controller and John Kunz as vice president and treasurer. Perkins joins Tenneco Automotive from GE Medical Systems Information Technology, where he most recently was director, commercial operations. Kunz joins Tenneco Automotive from Great Lakes Chemical Corp., where he most recently served as vice president and treasurer.
“DST Asks” Parts Distributors: Which Features of a Computerized Business Management System are Most Useful to Your Business?
Our youngest readers may not be able to remember that there was a time before remote control technology when changing the channel on your television actually required getting up off the couch and making the long walk over to it. “Channel surfing” only existed when you could get one of your kids to sit next to the TV and turn the dial for you. Life was brutal then.
Reynolds Shareholders Re-Elect Three Board Members, Approve Stock Incentive Programs
Shareholders of The Reynolds and Reynolds Co. have approved the re-election of three board members, each for a three-year term. Re-elected were Eustace Mita, chairman and CEO of Avista Properties Worldwide LLC, Philip Odeen, former chairman of TRW Inc., and Donald Peterson, chairman and CEO of Avaya Inc.
Bill Grote Names Eric Morris President and COO of Grote Industries, Grote to Assume Chairman/CEO Role
Eric Morris has been appointed to the newly created post of president and COO at Grote Industries. William (Bill) Grote III will assume duties of chairman and CEO at the 103-year-old family owned company. Grote Industries is a designer and manufacturer of vehicle safety systems. Headquartered in Madison, Ind., Grote manufactures LED and incandescent lamps, mirrors, obstacle detection systems, reflective accessories and wiring components. The company has other manufacturing plants in Toronto and Waterloo, Canada, as well as Monterrey, Mexico.
New Ideas Should Help Old Favorite
After getting whacked by big upheavals in the automotive supply world, the wobbly SAE World Congress, Detroit’s biggest and most important trade show, seems to be finding its legs again.
Treading a New Path
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is hoping to make a huge splash with a new high-end line of all-season tires. The Akron, Ohio-based company will roll out its Assurance line this spring with its biggest advertising blitz in more than a decade. Goodyear is counting on the new tires to help deliver a turnaround after four years of disappointing sales.
Compuware Panning to Buy Covisint
Compuware Corp., the largest high-tech company based in Michigan, is expected to announce that it will purchase financially struggling Covisint LLC, according to documents on Compuware letterhead obtained by the Detroit Free Press. The acquisition, expected to be completed within 30 days for an undisclosed “small cash transaction,” ends the most expensive Internet start-up and flop ever launched in Michigan.
American Axle & Manufacturing Elects New Board Members
American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings (AAM) has appointed two new members to its board of directors: Dr. Henry Yang, chancellor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Thomas Martin, a retired DaimlerChrysler financial executive.
IMR Founder Ken Brenneman Dies at 61
Kenneth Brenneman, Sr., founder and president of Industrial Marketing Research, an international automotive research firm, died Sunday, Dec. 28 of heart failure. He was 61-years-old. Brenneman founded Industrial Marketing Research in 1971 in Clarendon Hills, Ill., as a one-man operation. The firm quickly grew to become an international company that now serves the U.S., Europe and Asia.