The Affinia Group, a motor industry company, was formed in 2004 and specialized in the design, manufacture and replacement of parts for on and off-road vehicles, specifically filtration and chassis components. The company was headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan with approximately ten thousand employees in nineteen countries. In 2014, the company established the Gastonia, NC campus in the Charlotte region as the headquarters for the downsized company that has $1.5 billion in sales annually. Affinia was created through the $1 billion acquisition of the Automotive Aftermarket Group from Dana Holding Corporation by The Cypress Group.
History
In December 2012, Affinia sold its Raybestos brand of automobile brakes, Brake Parts Inc., to the management team for an undisclosed price. As of 2011, Brake Parts contributed about one-third of Affinia's sales. In October 2013, Affinia announced it had hired an executive from Charlotte, North Carolina, Steve Klueg, to be their new chief financial officer. Klueg replaced Thomas Madden at Affinia. At that same year, Affinia announced that it will relocate its headquarters from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Gastonia, North Carolina. WIX had 1,300 employees in four locations around Gastonia, NC. Collectively Affinia had over 5,000 workers in 30 facilities worldwide. By early August 2014, Affinia Group had moved its corporate office headquarters to Gastonia, NC from Ann Arbor, Michigan. The completion of the move coincided with the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Affinia subsidiary, WIX filtration Corporation. Both companies now shared the same headquarters. President and CEO at the time, Keith Wilson, explained that after the sale of Brake Parts in early 2013 and the chassis unit early in 2014 it did not make fiscal sense to keep a stand-alone headquarters for Affinia in Ann Arbor. The chassis unit was sold to Federal-Mogul. At the time of the move Affina was bringing in $1.5 billion annually in revenue, compared to $2.5 billion before the sell-off of the subsidiaries. All that remained of Affinia by August 2014 was WIX and Affinia South America. At this time, Affinia employed 4,500 workers in the US, South and Central America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. In April 2015, private equity company Cypress Group, owner of Affinia Group, asked investment bankBaird to find a buyer for their auto filter business. In 2014, the filtration subsidiary posted earnings of $156 million before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization. Sales in 2014 totaled $967 million. The entire Affinia Group had a total debt of $766 million at the end of 2014. In 2016, Mann+Hummel acquired the Affinia Group's filter business and Affinia essentially ceased to exist.
