Meritor-cracy: developing OE aftersales in the GCC
Meritor is a US manufacturer of automotive components for military suppliers, trucks, and trailers based in Troy, Michigan.
A Fortune 500 company, it supplies the axles, brakes, drivelines, suspension systems and other original components to OEMs including Daimler, Volvo and Scania. In both the USA and Europe it is also a prominent event and team sponsor for international truck racing events.
In the Middle East, however, the component manufacturer isn’t seeing the same rates of aftersales success that it is used to seeing in mature markets, according to Janusz Zieliński, Meritor’s sales director for region — and this is also something that Meritor is determined to change.
He explains: “We’re the biggest independent brakes manufacturer in the world, with a heritage of more than 120 years. We are pure heavy-duty truck, trailer and bus specialists, and widely recognised for our brakes and drive axles.
“In the USA and Europe we are a leading aftermarket player: in the USA, nearly every other truck is running with our axles; and in Europe it is one in three.
In the Middle East, however, Meritor’s success in the aftersales market has been much more measured, and part of the reason has been the importance placed on upfront costs in the region.
To combat both these obstacles, for the last three years Meritor has been going to both the OEM distributors and also directly to the end customer — to whom it can present a number of advantages.
One advantage is that Meritor, as the supplier to a number of brands, can potentially supply the components for several different brands to an otherwise mixed fleets with mixed distributors. Secondly, by cutting out middle men, Meritor is able to present its end users with a better price.
This mirrors an arrangement that Meritor already has in Europe, where “the sales team is present if not in every country, in every region” — but it is a strategy that also requires, as Zieliński notes, “a working infrastructure”.
Nevertheless, Meritor believes the time is right, and that end users in the Middle East are increasingly conscious of the long-term savings, or costs, of having the right, or wrong, parts.
Zieliński notes: “Here in the Middle East, the cars are always well maintained; they see the value if the vehicle runs properly — and we increasingly see the same thing with the trucks.”
The trick is to approach truck owners after their warranties (which require the use of original parts) expire, when there is increased temptation to use cheaper parts.
Zieliński adds: “We try to convince the people that it’s worthwhile to pay a little bit more for the part. If you buy a good brake disc and set of pads, they may cost 10% more, but they might also last 30% longer, so in the end you save money. This is what we try to tell the customers.”
And while its distributors are the middle men that Meritor will circumvent, Zieliński notes that Meritor will only ever capture a portion of the aftersales market, and highlights: “It’s also better for our distributors, because people will recognise the brand.”
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Meritor-cracy: developing OE aftersales in the GCC
The mission of Meritor, the original equipment part supplier for heavy-duty trucks, to raise commercial vehicle aftersales awareness in the Gulf
Meritor is a US manufacturer of automotive components for military suppliers, trucks, and trailers based in Troy, Michigan.
A Fortune 500 company, it supplies the axles, brakes, drivelines, suspension systems and other original components to OEMs including Daimler, Volvo and Scania. In both the USA and Europe it is also a prominent event and team sponsor for international truck racing events.
In the Middle East, however, the component manufacturer isn’t seeing the same rates of aftersales success that it is used to seeing in mature markets, according to Janusz Zieliński, Meritor’s sales director for region — and this is also something that Meritor is determined to change.
He explains: “We’re the biggest independent brakes manufacturer in the world, with a heritage of more than 120 years. We are pure heavy-duty truck, trailer and bus specialists, and widely recognised for our brakes and drive axles.
“In the USA and Europe we are a leading aftermarket player: in the USA, nearly every other truck is running with our axles; and in Europe it is one in three.
In the Middle East, however, Meritor’s success in the aftersales market has been much more measured, and part of the reason has been the importance placed on upfront costs in the region.
To combat both these obstacles, for the last three years Meritor has been going to both the OEM distributors and also directly to the end customer — to whom it can present a number of advantages.
One advantage is that Meritor, as the supplier to a number of brands, can potentially supply the components for several different brands to an otherwise mixed fleets with mixed distributors. Secondly, by cutting out middle men, Meritor is able to present its end users with a better price.
This mirrors an arrangement that Meritor already has in Europe, where “the sales team is present if not in every country, in every region” — but it is a strategy that also requires, as Zieliński notes, “a working infrastructure”.
Nevertheless, Meritor believes the time is right, and that end users in the Middle East are increasingly conscious of the long-term savings, or costs, of having the right, or wrong, parts.
Zieliński notes: “Here in the Middle East, the cars are always well maintained; they see the value if the vehicle runs properly — and we increasingly see the same thing with the trucks.”
The trick is to approach truck owners after their warranties (which require the use of original parts) expire, when there is increased temptation to use cheaper parts.
Zieliński adds: “We try to convince the people that it’s worthwhile to pay a little bit more for the part. If you buy a good brake disc and set of pads, they may cost 10% more, but they might also last 30% longer, so in the end you save money. This is what we try to tell the customers.”
And while its distributors are the middle men that Meritor will circumvent, Zieliński notes that Meritor will only ever capture a portion of the aftersales market, and highlights: “It’s also better for our distributors, because people will recognise the brand.”
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