GM Awards Tenneco Automotive New Exhaust Contract
11 August 1998
GM Awards Tenneco Automotive New Exhaust Contract; Largest Single Order in Tenneco Automotive's History
LAKE FOREST, Ill.--Aug. 10, 1998--Contract for GM's New Global Mid-Size Platform to Involve
Facilities in North America, Europe, South America and Australia
Tenneco Automotive announced today that General Motors has awarded the company the largest single order in Tenneco Automotive's history.
The contract, valued at nearly $200 million annually, is for exhaust system products for GM's new global mid-sized car platform, code named Epsilon. Production for the Epsilon program is scheduled to begin in Europe in 2001, and to reach a volume of 1.6 million vehicles a year worldwide.
"Tenneco's global resources played a major role in the award of this contract," said Thomas E. Evans, president of Tenneco Automotive. "GM's selection of Tenneco Automotive underscores the company's strengths as a global original equipment supplier to the world's leading car manufacturers."
The worldwide Epsilon program will produce the next generation of GM mid-sized cars, including the Chevrolet Malibu, Pontiac Grand Am, Oldsmobile Alero, Saturn LS, Vectra, Omega and Commodore models.
"As the Tier One exhaust supplier for this business, Tenneco Automotive will be a key participant in GM's innovative and exciting Epsilon program, which includes supply-in-line sequencing of exhaust assemblies at GM assembly sites on four different continents," said Mark Frissora, senior vice president and general manager of Tenneco Automotive's North American original equipment business. "This is precisely the type of systems business we're capable of handling for our customers."
The geographic distribution of cars produced under the Epsilon program is expected to be 55 percent in North America, 35 percent in Europe, and 10 percent in South America and Australia.
"Tenneco Automotive has facilities on the ground in all of these areas of the world, which is a leverageable asset that global companies like GM demand in a supplier," added Evans.
Tenneco is an $8 billion global manufacturing company based in Greenwich, Conn. Tenneco Automotive, headquartered in Lake Forest, Ill., manufactures the world's leading ride control and exhaust system products under the global brand names of Monroe and Walker. With 1997 revenues of more than $3 billion, Tenneco Automotive operates 73 facilities in 22 countries in North America, Europe, Africa, South America, Australia and the Asia-Pacific Rim region.
For more information about the company, visit the Tenneco Automotive website at www.tenneco-automotive.com.