ArvinMeritor: Former Ford Exec To Run Auto Parts Spin-off
May 07, 2008

Former Ford Executive Phil Martens will become CEO of a new company, Arvin Innovations, a spin-off of auto parts supplier ArvinMeritor, Inc., struggling to return to profitability by restructuring, expanding globally and becoming less dependent on Detroit’s Big Three.

Martens, who ran product development at Mazda and later Ford North America, was among a handful of executives who left Ford in a political battle that had Martens’ rival Mark Fields becoming Ford’s President of the Americas.

Martens, who spent 18 years at Ford, went to now-bankrupt auto supplier Plastech Engineered Products, which has been in a highly publicized dispute with Chrysler of late. He joined ArvinMeritor in fall 2006 as a senior vice president and president of the supplier’s light vehicle systems group.

ArvinMeritor was formed by merging two separate auto suppliers eight years ago – Arvin Industries and Meritor Automotive Inc., a spin-off of Rockwell International. The spin-off of Arvin Innovations unwinds that merger and is part of a more than three-year restructuring plan to return ArvinMeritor to profitability.

The intent is to have ArvinMeritor focus on the commercial truck business. The company will have 10,000 workers in 62 facilities around the world. Annual sales are about $4.2 billion.

Arvin Innovation will focus on the light vehicle business, which Martens already heads within ArvinMeritor. The new company, which supplies roof and door systems, chassis and wheels to automakers, will employ 9,000 workers at 42 facilities in 16 countries with its headquarters in Detroit. Its sales are about $2.2 billion a year. The company is looking to have more than 65 percent of its business come from outside the U.S., while business with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors accounts for about 20 percent of its global sales.

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