At Cloyes Gear & Products, timing is everything.
The Fort Smith manufacturer makes and distributes timing drive systems for the automotive parts market, but its timing in business matters has also been good lately, despite the temporary setback of the coronavirus pandemic.
On the cusp of its centennial next year, the 88-employee company has repurchased its 155,000-SF factory in Paris (Logan County); won the 2019 best new product award at AAPEX, the industry’s biggest annual exhibition, in November; and recently announced it’s building a part for the 2020 Corvette C8 model.
“Our company has been around for 99 years, and the easiest way to explain us is that we’re a manufacturer and distributor of timing drive systems for automotive applications, and by that I mean the timing chain and associated components, timing belts, anything that makes that engine continue to move,” said Brian Wheeler, Cloyes’ vice president of business development and marketing.
“The majority of our sales are to the aftermarket or to the replacement business. You know, the Advance Auto Parts and O’Reilly’s of the world, getting those parts to professional technicians and folks who like wrenching on their own vehicles. We actually are supplying a crankshaft sprocket from our Paris plant for the new mid-engine Corvette.”
The company’s timing parts drive the engines of cars and trucks, buses and boats worldwide, with Cloyes facilities in the United States, Mexico and Shanghai. A Cloyes timing set even helped propel Arie Luyendyk to victory at the Indianapolis 500 in 1997.
As a privately held company, Cloyes does not reveal revenue or income figures. But Wheeler said sales this year are projected to beat 2019’s, and business has grown since Cloyes’ management regained company ownership in 2018, with the backing of private equity firm Hidden Harbor Capital Partners of Boca Raton, Florida. Cloyes had been acquired in 2017 by a large automotive supplier.
Getting Back to Paris
“That was American Axle & Manufacturing, based in Detroit, and they didn’t do business in the aftermarket,” Wheeler said. “So they wanted to carve out the Cloyes business. That deal took place in 2018, and Hidden Harbor immediately started the purchase of the Paris plant, because American Axle had ownership rights to that asset as well.”
AAM held ownership of the plant through its $33 billion purchase of Metaldyne Performance Group of Southfield, Michigan. Cloyes regained complete ownership of the Paris plant last October. “Cloyes, the management team and the owners are committed to our customers, the communities we work in and live in, our people, and to the betterment of the industries they serve,” Cloyes CEO John Bohenick said in celebrating the plant reacquisition. Bohenick has been chief executive since 2018.
“Cloyes came to Paris in 1963 and has been a big part of the town’s economy for more than 56 years,” said Steve Fairbanks, vice president of manufacturing, at the October event. “Many of our employees have worked for Cloyes their entire adult life and have more than 30 years of seniority with the company.”
Along with corporate offices, Cloyes also has a 52,500-SF distribution center in Fort Smith, which distributes 3 million products a year to customers worldwide. About 60 of the 88 employees work in Fort Smith or Paris, Wheeler said.
After an initial jolt, Cloyes has weathered the pandemic well, Wheeler said.
“For a time, cars weren’t being made, so that was a challenge.” The good news for Cloyes, he said, is that most of its parts are bought by customers looking to replace a broken part. “So we’ve come through this so far OK. In manufacturing, we’ve implemented the safety measures you’d expect, checking temperatures and applying social distancing, moving folks farther away at the Paris facility and at the distribution plant, sanitizing things. As of now, knock wood, we haven’t had problems keeping up operations.”
Early this year, Cloyes announced that it had completed an important certification for its Paris plant’s quality management system. The factory achieved ISO 9001-2015 certification, meeting international quality management standards.
The Paris plant makes highly machined powertrain gears, sprockets and idler assemblies for original equipment manufacturers and the automotive aftermarket. It also has a reputation for producing high-performance parts.
The announcement of the 2020 Corvette part came last month. General Motors calls the newly designed Chevrolet muscle car, with 495 horsepower and big torque, the most powerful production Stingray ever. “The receipt of this business reconfirms the level of quality, reliability and capability that Cloyes offers its global automotive and aftermarket customers,” Fairbanks said.
“When I look at what we’re doing right now, we’ve been very aggressive with new part development,” Wheeler said. “We actually went out there to AAPEX and won the best new product award in November. So that’s something the team is quite proud of.”
What part? “It’s a variable valve timing chain kit,” Wheeler said, leaving a reporter’s car knowledge in the dust. “It’s a variable valve timing cam phaser, and we took our time on this part. We developed a product that works much better than not only the original design, but all of our aftermarket competitors, too. We put it through rigorous testing and were able to unveil that in 2019 and again, win in Las Vegas.”
The 2019 Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo featured 2,500 exhibiting companies from the $1 trillion-a-year global automotive aftermarket industry.
The Kit Approach
Jason Thompson, Cloyes’ vice president of engineering and product development, said many parts in the timing process wear and break down practically at the same time, including chains, guide bracketry, tensioners and sprocket teeth. “For these reasons, and the fact that timing component cost is a fraction of the labor costs required to replace the components,” Thompson recommends replacing all components in one repair. “This is certainly the approach we took with our VVT chain kits.”
Wheeler explained Cloyes’ marketing approach as a strategy to sell complete systems or kits. “We developed the entire system down to one box, so when you’re replacing the chain, you’re replacing the guides, you’re replacing the sprockets, the gears, etc.”
Despite the pandemic, Wheeler sees good roads ahead.
“We do expect to surpass our 2019 sales, and we’re eager to grow year over year like any business does,” he said. “The pandemic has put challenges on our industry, with everyone on lockdown and the number of miles driven decreasing, but after five rough weeks, we’ve seen three good weeks with sales going up industrywide.”
And the 100th birthday party?
“We will have a few things that take place for the 100-year anniversary of the company’s founding,” Wheeler said.
“But at this time, I am not ready to divulge exactly what those plans will be.”
Cloyes Gear & Products Timeline
1921
• Raymond T. Cloyes founds the company in Cleveland.
1963
• Cloyes opens its manufacturing plant in Paris (Logan County).
1989
• Cloyes acquires Timing Gear Corp. of Chicago.
1997
• Arie Luyendyk wins the Indianapolis 500 in a car with a Cloyes timing set.
• Cloyes acquires RFR Chain and opens up a dedicated aftermarket distribution center in Fort Smith.
2003
• The company acquires the timing component business of Dynagear Inc. of Downers Grove, Illinois.
2004
• A Cloyes aftermarket business opens in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
2016
• The company establishes an office in Shanghai.
2017
• American Axle & Manufacturing gains ownership of Cloyes with its acquisition of Metaldyne Performance Group Inc. of Southfield, Michigan, which included Cloyes.
2018
• Cloyes is acquired from American Axle & Manufacturing in a corporate carve-out by Hidden Harbor Capital Partners, a private equity firm in Boca Raton, Florida.
2019
• Cloyes regains ownership of the 155,000-SF Paris plant, staving off a shutdown by American Axle.
• Cloyes wins the Best New Product award in the hard parts category of the AAPEX trade show in Las Vegas.
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