PORTLAND, Ore.—After its recent acquisition, Apache Inc.'s integration with Motion Industries Inc. is moving forward "really quite well," according to Tom Pientok, president of Apache, a division of Motion.
"We're focused on integrating, as well as understanding how we're going to go to market, and make sure that we're servicing each other's customers well, continuing to look for opportunities to drive growth," Pientok said.
The acquisition was completed Nov. 1, and the two companies have started the process of coming together, including being welcomed to the recent Motion national sales meeting, according to Jill Miller, Apache marketing and communication manager. From the larger company, Apache employees were consistently welcomed to the family, she said.
Despite the difference in size, the cultures of the two companies fit together well, Pientok said.
"When we sat down and set out to put our two companies together, we felt we were very complementary, with similar strategies and similar cultures," he said. "You run into some challenges with semantics and learning the way the other operates, but at the end of the day, our cultures are very similar."
As the integration moves forward, the companies are learning each other's languages and processes, and are looking for ways to bring more business in-house, Pientok said.
"There are certain capabilities that we bring to the table that previously had to be outsourced by Motion, so we want to take advantage of that and bring it under the Motion umbrella," he said.
Apache will be working with other companies under that umbrella to create new value-added products, fill product gaps and grow business, said Tony Cefalu, senior vice president of Motion Industries.
"When you open up capabilities to more than 500 locations in North America, the opportunities are endless," he said. "That's our intention, to expose as much of what Apache does well that Motion currently doesn't have the capacity to do and open that up to the organization."
Going forward, Motion and its parent company, Genuine Parts Co., will invest in Apache and develop the business, but those choices haven't yet been made for 2018, Cefalu said.
"We go through a painstaking process every year to improve the shops, and Genuine Parts has been very generous, and Motion's been very generous, making sure we have the right equipment in the right place," he said. "We're pleased with the way things have been going so far, and we know it's only going to get better."