Standard Motor Products Profile
Standard Motor Products, Inc. operates as a manufacturer and distributor of premium replacement parts in the automotive aftermarket and a custom-engineered solutions provider to vehicle and equipment manufacturers in diverse non-aftermarket end markets.
The company’s automotive aftermarket business is consisted of two segments, Vehicle Control and Temperature Control, while the company’s Engineered Solutions Segment offers a broad array of conventional and future-oriented technologies in markets for commercial and light vehicles, construction, agriculture, power sports, marine, hydraulics and lawn and garden. The company sells its products primarily to retailers, warehouse distributors, original equipment manufacturers and original equipment service part operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Mexico and other Latin America countries.
Segments
Beginning in the first quarter of 2023, the company reorganized its business into three operating segments – Vehicle Control, Temperature Control and Engineered Solutions.
Vehicle Control segment
The company’s Vehicle Control Segment services its core automotive aftermarket customers through its offering of premium replacement parts within the following major product groups:
Engine Management, which includes components for the ignition, emissions and fuel delivery systems of vehicles utilizing an internal combustion engine. Product categories include air injection and induction components, air management valves, regulators and solenoids, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) components, fuel injectors and related components, fuel valves, ignition coils, connectors and sockets, modules, pumps, relays and fuses, starting and charging system parts, and vapor and purge components.
Electrical & Safety, which includes components for the electrical and safety systems of vehicles, and are powertrain neutral vehicle technologies. Product categories include electrical switches and actuators, chassis and drivetrain sensors such as anti-lock brake and vehicle speed sensors, fluid level sensors, pressure sensors such as tire pressure monitoring, temperature sensors, and sensors for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), along with battery cables, pigtails, sockets and a wide range of electrical wire, terminals, connectors, and tools for servicing a vehicle’s electrical system.
Wire Sets & Other, which includes spark plug wire sets, coil on plug boots and accessories servicing vehicle’s ignition system. Certain product categories within this group are in secular decline based upon product life cycle.
Many Vehicle Control systems use on-board computers to monitor inputs from sensing devices located throughout the vehicle. As the complexity of these systems continues to develop and proliferate, the company expects to benefit from increased demand for its sensors, switches, actuators, valves, solenoids and related parts, which are designed to function with these systems.
The company also expects to benefit from government regulations regarding vehicle safety and emissions. For example, emissions laws and fuel economy regulations have had a positive impact on sales of the company’s ignition, emissions control and fuel delivery parts since vehicles not meeting emissions inspection standards may require repairs utilizing parts sold by the company. Similarly, as government-mandated safety devices, such as anti-lock braking systems and ADAS, proliferate with new vehicle production, the company anticipates increased replacement opportunities for many of the company’s products such as ABS sensors, TPMS sensors, traction control products and ADAS replacement parts.
Temperature Control segment
The company’s Temperature Control Segment also services the company’s core automotive aftermarket customers through its offering of premium replacement parts within the following major product groups:
AC System Components, which includes compressors, air conditioning repair kits, connecting lines, heat exchangers, and expansion devices.
Other Thermal Components, which includes parts that provide engine, transmission, electric drive motor, and battery temperature management.
The company’s Temperature Control Segment is poised to benefit from the broader adoption of more complex air conditioning systems that will provide passenger comfort regardless of the vehicle’s powertrain. For example, in addition to cabin comfort, powertrains such as electric vehicles will require cooling systems for the batteries, electronics, motors and other applications.
Engineered Solutions Segment
The Engineered Solutions Segment services the company’s vehicle and equipment manufacturing customers across diverse global end markets, including on-highway and off-highway applications such as commercial and light vehicles, construction, agriculture, power sports, marine, hydraulics and lawn and garden, through an offering of custom-engineered solutions within the following product categories:
Thermal Management Products, which are designed to control the operating temperature of HVAC, battery and heat exchange systems, such as electrical compressors, fans, motors and pumps.
Sensors, covering applications in speed, position, temperature, pressure, level and particulate matter, among others.
Switches, covering applications in electrical performance, position, temperature, pressure, tilt and fluid levels, among others.
Power Distribution, covering applications in power switching, industrial solenoids, and voltage regulators.
Electrification & Electronics, which includes controller area network (CAN) devices, CAN bus wiring and splitting devices, and electronic controls, transmitters and components.
Injection & Fuel Delivery, covering an extensive array of applications in transportation, such as gasoline, diesel and alternative fuels, such as compressed natural gas, liquefied natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and hydrogen.
Ignition & Emissions, which includes wire, ignition coils and positive crankcase ventilation valves.
Clamping Devices, covering automotive and industrial applications.
Business Strategy
The company sells its products in the automotive aftermarket primarily to retailers and warehouse distributors, who buy directly from the company and sells directly to jobber stores, professional technicians and to individual consumers who perform ‘do-it-yourself’ repairs on their personal vehicles. The company’s value proposition is a key competitive advantage in maintaining its position as a strategic partner to the company’s customers and a leader in the automotive aftermarket.
Premium Quality Products
The company offers professional grade products intended to fit, form and function to standards that meet or exceed the original equipment (‘OE’) product it replaces. The company’s products undergo rigorous product qualification, testing the company’s products against exacting specifications and performance criteria. In some cases, the company has successfully identified and implemented improvements in the durability of the company’s products through the evaluation and analysis of OE product failures in the field.
Premium Brands
In some cases, the company has developed its product offering and brand strategies to support the company’s customers’ initiatives to market a tiered product assortment designed to satisfy end-user preferences for quality and value. This alignment makes the company an invaluable business partner to its customers.
Full-Line Coverage
The company’s product offering is designed to ensure its automotive aftermarket customers have the parts they need to maintain, service and repair the wide range of vehicles in operation. The company offers a full line of critical components for most years, makes, models and engine sizes. The company’s product offering is a reflection of the vehicles in operation, the adoption rates of new vehicle technologies by original equipment manufacturers, the number of miles driven, and the failure rates of parts in service. The company continuously looks to expand its coverage through the addition of late-model applications in existing product categories, as well as new product categories in response to evolving vehicle technologies, or that otherwise complement the company’s existing offering and have potential for high growth.
The company focuses on expanding its product coverage in advanced powertrain technologies, including start and stop technology, cylinder deactivation, variable valve timing, turbochargers, electronic throttle bodies, diesel exhaust emissions control, gasoline direct injection, active grill shutters; electrification, such as battery cooling fans, drive battery charging cables and adapters, and electric coolant pumps; and safety related categories, such as anti-lock brake, vehicle speed sensors, tire pressure monitoring, park assist sensors and advanced driver assistance components, including blind spot detection sensors, cruise control distance sensors, lane departure sensor cameras and park assist backup cameras.
In December 2023, the company offered over 79,000 total stock keeping units (SKUs) to the automotive aftermarket. Approximately 2,600 of these SKUs were newly introduced in 2023, of which more than half were powertrain neutral vehicle technologies, such as cruise control distance sensors, park assist cameras and electronic parking brake actuators.
The company’s Vehicle Control offering includes more than seventy product categories for hybrid electric vehicles. The company is committed to strategically expanding its product offerings for electric and hybrid vehicles to service this important segment.
Supply Chain Excellence
The company partners with its suppliers and customers, to implement focused initiatives designed to achieve high levels of performance against these key metrics. For example, the company manages forecasting responsibilities for its major retail customers, and provides twelve month projections to the company’s suppliers to assist in their raw material and capacity planning to ensure continuity of supply.
In 2023, the company announced plans to open a new distribution center in Shawnee, Kansas. The new facility, which is expected to have a phased opening beginning in 2024 and be fully operational in early 2025, will expand the company’s total distribution network square footage to meet the company’s growing demands in the automotive aftermarket, and integrate state-of-the-art technologies to deliver improved logistics capabilities, operational efficiencies, as well as enhanced employee, customer and supplier experiences. The new Shawnee, Kansas distribution facility will also bring the company’s Vehicle Control products geographically closer to its Midwest and West Coast customers, reducing transportation lead-time, and will ultimately provide disaster recovery capabilities for automotive aftermarket products across the company’s divisions.
Field Sales Support
The company’s field sales support focuses on educating parts professionals (e.g., customer team members) and professional technicians in highly technical product categories. The company’s customers depend on the company’s sales personnel as a reliable source for technical information and to assist with sales to their customers (e.g., jobber stores, professional technicians and individual consumers performing ‘do-it-yourself’ repairs). The company directs a significant portion of its sales efforts to the company’s customers’ customers to generate demand for the company’s products. The structure of the company’s salesforce facilitates these efforts, enabling the company to implement its sales and marketing programs uniformly throughout the distribution channel.
Marketing Support
The company supports its customers with superior value-added services such as data-driven category management based on vehicles in operation, sophisticated parts catalogs, available online and through the company’s mobile application, and technical support, including selection, assortment and application support for all of the company’s products. The company also grants its customers royalty-free licenses to use certain intellectual property rights to advertise, market and sell the company’s products. The licenses primarily cover vehicle application data, which is used to identify the parts necessary to service any particular vehicle make, model, year and/or engine size, product information data, including product interchanges, part numbers, attributes, high resolution images and videos, dimensions, specifications and other technical descriptions of parts and components.
World-Class Training
The company generates demand for its products through the company’s technical training program, which offers training seminars to professional automotive technicians. The company’s training program is accredited by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Training Managers Council. The company’s seminars are taught by ASE certified instructors, and are available in-person and online through webinars and on-demand seminars. The company’s seminars cover approximately 150 different topics, offered in both English and Spanish. Through the company’s training program, the company typically teaches approximately 60,000 technicians annually how to diagnose and repair vehicles equipped with complex systems related to the company’s products, and the company has approximately 16,000 technicians and 7,000 of its customers’ store employees and sales team members who are registered to participate in such sessions through the company’s online platform.
Basic Manufacturing
The company is committed to expanding its design, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, and vertically integrating production processes to bring more manufacturing in-house. The company engineers, tools and manufactures many of the products the company offers for sale and the components used in their assembly.
As of December 31, 2023, all of the company’s principal manufacturing facilities maintained quality management systems that were ISO 9001 and/or TS 16949 certified, and ten of the company’s principal manufacturing and distribution facilities maintained environmental management systems that were ISO 14001 certified.
The company’s manufacturing footprint is geographically diverse with a greater presence in North America and Europe compared to many of the company’s peers.
Engineered Solutions Value Proposition
The company seeks to leverage its extensive portfolio of adaptable products and strategically positioned global network of resources to deliver custom-engineered solutions for vehicle control and thermal management categories to the diversified end markets the company supplies.
The company’s Engineered Solutions products are sold primarily to original equipment manufacturers and their tier suppliers, system integrators, and original equipment service part operations. The company’s customers use its products in serial production and as service and replacement parts.
The company’s global network of resources, including its engineering capabilities, advanced quality systems, manufacturing, distribution and technical sales expertise, combined with the company’s customizable solutions for vehicle control and thermal management categories, is a key competitive advantage. The company’s focus on vehicle control and thermal management categories leverages the legacy and leadership position of the company’s automotive aftermarket business to provide a platform for future growth in diverse non-aftermarket end markets.
The company’s automotive aftermarket business benefits from its Engineered Solutions business through accelerated future product development; systems, processes and quality enhancements; the technical insights of its original equipment customers; its global footprint; and synergistic mergers and acquisitions.
Strategic Acquisitions
The company selectively pursues strategic acquisitions that strengthen its position in the markets the company supplies or that diversifies its business in target markets or geographies.
Customers
In the automotive aftermarket, the company’s customers are many of the largest national and regional retailers and distributors, such as: Advance Auto Parts; Auto Value and Bumper to Bumper (Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance); Automotive Distribution Network; AutoZone; Canadian Tire; Federated Auto Parts; Genuine Parts Company and National Automotive Parts Association; O’Reilly Auto Parts; The Automotive Parts Services Group or The Group; The National Pronto Association; and Uni-Select.
Engineered Solutions customers are many of the largest original equipment manufacturers and their tier suppliers, system integrators, and original equipment service part operations, such as: Bombardier; Carquest: Caterpillar; CNH; Daimler Truck; Eberspacher; Ford; General Motors; Harley-Davidson; IVECO; John Deere; Mobile Climate Control; Polaris; Scania; Volvo/Mack Truck; and Woodward.
During 2023, O’Reilly Auto Parts, AutoZone and NAPA accounted for 29%, 16%, and 14% of the company’s consolidated net sales, respectively.
Seasonality
Historically, the company’s operating results have fluctuated by quarter, with the greatest sales occurring in the second and third quarters of the year (year ended December 2023) and revenues generally being recognized at the time of shipment. It is in these quarters that demand for the company’s products is typically the highest, specifically in the Temperature Control Segment of the company’s business.
History
Standard Motor Products, Inc., a New York corporation, was founded in 1919. The company was incorporated in 1926.
