ArvinMeritor’s Light Vehicle Aftermarket (LVA) business group has been named as the supplier of exhaust products to more than 1,600 US Midas shops, through an agreement with Memphis, Tennessee-based AutoZone.
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Under the agreement, AutoZone will serve as the exclusively endorsed supplier of Arvin-brand exhaust products to Midas. ArvinMeritor’s LVA operations, based in Loudon, Tennessee, will supply the exhaust products to AutoZone – replacing Midas-brand exhaust products currently supplied by AutoZone to Midas US locations. ArvinMeritor has also entered into a separate agreement to purchase certain IPC assets from Midas, among them the IPC brand.
“The agreements with AutoZone and Midas represent an expansion to our six- year relationship as a supplier to Midas, and to our more than 20-year relationship with AutoZone,” said Dan Daniel, president of Light Vehicle Aftermarket for ArvinMeritor. “We remain committed to supplying AutoZone and Midas with industry-leading service levels and product coverage on our high- quality, cost-competitive exhaust products.
“The additional volume provided to our business through these agreements will help to offset the declines in the overall exhaust aftermarket in North America, and ensure our ability to continue to provide our customers with our industry-leading customer service and competitiveness. Furthermore, we look forward to the opportunity to serve IPC customers.”
The agreements follow Midas’ announcement last October that it sought to exit exhaust manufacturing and IPC-brand distribution, and would negotiate with alternate suppliers to do so. Midas expects that it will exit both of those businesses by December 31, 2005.
Within the next few weeks, AutoZone will begin a region-by-region implementation of weekly stocking shipments of Arvin exhaust products to US Midas shops. That conversion is expected to be complete by December 31.
