ArvinMeritor Opens Remanufacturing Plant for Mascot Truck Parts Division in Ontario
This story appears in the May 4 print edition of Transport Topics.
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — ArvinMeritor Inc. officially opened its new remanufacturing facility here for its Mascot Truck Parts division, the latest development in the company’s expanding presence in this niche of the truck equipment business.
Mascot, which employs 153 workers at four plants in Canada, was founded in 1936 and currently remanufactures transmissions, differentials and steering components.
Terry Livingston, the general manager of ArvinMeritor’s aftermarket division in North America, said Mascot benefits the company because “it services all brands and gets us into product lines that we don’t otherwise serve.”
Other divisions of the company remanufacture only ArvinMeritor’s own products, he said.
Glenn Hanthorn, Mascot’s president, told the opening day crowd of customers and journalists April 29 that the company fills about 40,000 orders a month.
He explained that Mascot remanufactures — not rebuilds — its parts. The difference, he said, is that rebuilders replace only what is known to be broken, with no warranty offered, while Mascot begins by dismantling the entire part, then cleans and inspects it, replaces what is worn or broken and offers a one-year, unlimited mileage warranty on its parts.
Mascot is primarily a wholesale operation, selling its products to maintenance facilities. It does, however, remake some parts directly for fleets, mostly for trucking companies located near Mascot’s facilities.
The division also manufactures new driveshafts at the plant here.
Livingston said the Mississauga plant — which includes 100,000 square feet of space and combined three separate Mascot operations scattered around the area — ships more than 1,200 axle carriers and transmissions a month to customers throughout North America, including five truck original equipment manufacturers. Production began in late February.
In a typical month, Masco also remakes as many as 450 transmissions, 650 differentials, 525 steering gears, 1,500 power-steering pumps and 300 drivelines, according to Hanthorn.
Livingston said ArvinMeritor’s business strategy in the remanufacturing niche is based on two factors: “same day/next day availability” through local distribution centers and “an all-makes portfolio that enables customers to make one phone call for their ‘post-engine overhaul’ drivetrain needs.” Mascot has 30 local distribution centers scattered throughout the United States and Canada.
Mascot was founded as Motor Accessories & Service Co. of Toronto in 1936 and began to specialize in heavy-duty truck parts in the 1960s. It has been virtually wholesale-only since 1989.
Focusing on the wholesale side of the business keeps ArvinMeritor from competing directly with the same truck OEMs the company relies on to purchase its new parts as part of their current production models.
ArvinMeritor bought Mascot in December 2007 from Navistar Inc., which had purchased it in 1999. The other Mascot plants are in Edmonton, Moncton and Montreal.
The company began its remanufacturing business in 1982 at a plant in Florence, Ky. That plant later relocated to a 275,000-square-foot facility in Plainfield, Ind., where ArvinMeritor remakes transmissions, brake shoes and trailer axles.
ArvinMeritor expanded into the international remanufacturing business in 2008, when it acquired Trucktechnic, a commercial brake remanufacturer and distributor based in Belgium.
