By Amy Antenora
The Week in Review offers a snapshot of the most highly read stories of the week as seen on aftermarketNews. To access the complete stories, simply click on the highlighted links. If you missed reading one of our daily news emails, click on any of the dates listed at the bottom of the page to begin catching up on the latest industry news.
This week, AMN readers kept a close watch as a hostage situation unfolded at a French Michelin plant. French Michelin & Cie. workers, protesting the closure of a plant in Toul, France, held several executives hostage in a stand off situation late last week. A deal was reached later this week with Michelin Groupe and several of the European Labor Unions. Details of this agreement have not been revealed yet; but thankfully, the two captive executives were unharmed.
On a more positive note, BBB Industries acquired Wilson Electric, Inc., of Winnepeg, Canada, this week. This marks the company’s first heavy-duty expansion into the Canadian market. Larry Fedoruk, general manager of Wilson and other Wilson employees, will remain with the company after the acquisition.
While BBB Industries may have had a good week, Honeywell International did not. The company was bumped off the Dow Jones Industrial Average after being listed for 82 years. Other auto-related companies that recently experienced the same fate were Chevron, Sears and Navistar.
Financial news continued to capture interest this week as Genuine Parts Co. (GPC) reported record sales and earnings for the year. GPC’s 2007 sales were up 4 percent from 2006 and its EPS increased by 8 percent. Sales for GPC have increased 57 of the last 58 years, according to the report.
Rounding out our list of this week’s top-read stories comes news of a new line of premium-quality fuel pumps, regulators and related products for racing applications from Federal-Mogul’s Carter Fuel Delivery brand. The new Carter HI-Performance product line includes advanced Rotary Vane-style electric fuel pumps for enhanced flow and reliability on basic carbureted applications; top-quality/maximum-flow Premium HP In-line fuel pumps for ultra-high-output street machines and racing applications; Direct-Fit Electric fuel pumps specially engineered for tuner engines; Competition Series mechanical fuel pumps for muscle cars and classic applications; and Die-Cast Billet Mechanical pumps for top-level competition and appearance.
* Editorial assistant Nicholas DiSabatino contributed to this report.
To view all of the news from the past week, simply click on the link for each corresponding day:
