Auto Mergers: Supplier Leads Globalization, Consolidation Trend

29 January 1999

Auto Mergers: Supplier Leads Globalization, Consolidation Trend

    WARREN, Mich.--Jan. 29, 1999--Two recently announced acquisitions -- Ford/Volvo and TRW/LucasVarity -- reinforce the need for automotive suppliers to have global presence and capabilities, according to North America's largest manufacturing systems supplier.
    "As car model decisions span international borders, manufacturing systems suppliers to the auto industry must have the capabilities to provide timely, effective and seamless customer support anywhere in the world," said Clayton A. Williams, senior vice president, UNOVA Inc. .
    "Like many of our major customers, UNOVA is leading a consolidation trend within the manufacturing systems industry. In the past three years we have more than doubled the size and number of our international operations through internal growth and acquisitions. Wherever our customers go, we can support them effectively."
    A 1998 study by International Business Development Corp. (Troy, Mich.) named a UNOVA division as one of only 25 automotive suppliers with sufficient resources and strategic focus to supply global automakers into the 21st Century.
    With more than $1.3 billion in manufacturing systems revenue expected in 1999, UNOVA's Industrial Automation Group, based in Warren, is North America's leading designer, developer, integrator and builder of dedicated and flexible precision manufacturing systems for the global automotive, diesel engine, off-road vehicle and aerospace industries.
    With headquarters in Southern California, UNOVA is a $2 billion industrial technologies company with global leadership positions in manufacturing systems and machine tools, and in automated data collection, mobile computing, bar code and radio frequency identification systems.