TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
12001 Tech Center Drive
Livonia, Michigan 48150-2122
U.S.A.
Telephone: (734) 855-2600
Fax: (734) 266-5702
Web site: http://www.trwauto.com
Public Subsidiary of The Blackstone Group, L.P.
Incorporated: 1901 as Cleveland Cap Screw Co.
Employees: 59,900
Sales: $12.01 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: TRW
NAIC: 336399 All Other Motor Vehicle Parts Manufacturing; 336322 Other Motor Vehicle Electrical and Electronic Equipment Manufacturing; 336360 Motor Vehicle Seating and Interior Trim Manufacturing
TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., successor to the conglomerate TRW Inc., is one of the world's largest automotive parts and systems suppliers, with a primary focus on safety systems. The TRW product lines include air bags, seat belts, and safety- and security-related electronics, as well as chassis systems and various automotive components. Nearly 60 percent of revenues are attributable to four large customers: Ford Motor Company, DaimlerChrysler AG, Volkswagen AG, and General Motors Corporation. The company has more than 200 facilities located in 24 countries; Europe accounts for 55 percent of revenues, and North America, another 37 percent.
The old TRW was acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation in December 2002. Northrop Grumman wanted only TRW's space and defense operations and so sold the TRW automotive business to The Blackstone Group, L.P., a privately held investment firm, in February 2003. Blackstone then took the newly named TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. public through a February 2004 initial public offering, after which Blackstone held a 56.7 percent interest in TRW, Northrop Grumman, 17.2 percent (later reduced to less than 10 percent), and TRW management, 1.7 percent.
Shaky Beginnings As Conglomerate
The conglomerate structure of the original TRW was deeply rooted in the company's history. In the early 1950s the Cleveland-based Thompson Products Co. was looking for an acquisition. J. David Wright, the company's general manager, and Horace Shepard, a vice-president, thought the auto valve and steering component maker needed more technical sophistication. Thompson, founded in 1901 as Cleveland Cap Screw Co. before adopting the Thompson Products moniker in 1926, had made a name for itself in automotive and aircraft engine parts and had become well known by sponsoring the famed Thompson Trophy Race, the aeronautical equivalent of auto racing's Indianapolis 500. In recent years, however, the company was facing a decline in manned aircraft and saw opportunities in aerospace and electronics.
To break into the young high-tech industry, Wright and Shepard tried to buy Hughes Aircraft Co. Hughes was willing to listen to bids but scoffed at the Thompson offer, which was thought to be ten times too low. Just a few months later, two of Hughes Aircraft's top scientist-executives, Simon Ramo and Dean Wooldridge, decided to leave Hughes to form a new electronic systems company, and Thompson put up $500,000 to bankroll the venture. Not long afterward, in 1953, Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation was established in Los Angeles and quickly gained solid standing in the advanced technology business, being awarded the systems engineering and technical direction contracts for such important missile programs as Atlas, Minuteman, Titan, and Thor.
By 1958 Thompson Products had invested $20 million—20 percent of its net worth at the time—for a 49 percent interest in Ramo-Wooldridge, and the two operations were merged as Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. Though united on paper, the company maintained separate corporate headquarters, with Wooldridge president in Los Angeles and Wright chairman in Cleveland. Ramo and Shepard, a former chief of production procurement for the Air Force, also had an active role in management.
The merger could hardly have started less auspiciously. In the midst of a recession, the Cleveland-based group was hit with a 14 percent drop in automotive business and a 34 percent drop in manned aircraft business. When business improved for the Cleveland division, the Los Angeles division got into trouble. Its venture into semiconductors collapsed in 1961, and the Robert McNamara era was beginning at the Pentagon. The West Coast scientists, who had known only cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts, needed help. They had to learn how to go from spending money to making it. This education was hampered by hard feelings between the two groups. The electronics end was not living up to its promise of being the business of the future. In the first four years following the merger, profit margins, which had been at the 4 percent-plus level in the mid-1950s, dropped to an average of barely 2 percent.
With the company facing such mundane tasks as cost-cutting, Wooldridge, who reportedly never really wanted to be a businessman anyway, resigned in 1962. As Wooldridge was getting settled in at his new job as a professor at the California Institute of Technology, Shepard was promoted to president and Ramo named vice-chairman. With Cleveland now in control of the company, the Los Angeles scientists were quickly reassured when the new management team instituted a number of reforms to get the company back on its feet, including writing off $3 million in inventory.
In 1963 Shepard and Wright began pruning unprofitable divisions. They sold most of the unprofitable Bumkor-Ramo computer division to Martin Marietta. The company retained partial ownership in Bumkor-Ramo but no longer played a large role in the company's plans. Shepard and Wright continued hammering out the company's plans for long-term growth, seeking specifically to raise profit margins. To this end, in 1964 they sold the microwave division and the division that made hifidelity components, intercoms, and language laboratories.
To shore up the company's auto parts division, they bought Ross Gear and Tool Company, a maker of mechanical and power steering units, and Marlin-Rockwell, a ball bearings manufacturer. The 7 percent profit margin of the new acquisitions, which had a combined profit of $5.7 million on sales of $76.5 million, helped boost TRW's overall margin to 4 percent in 1964, up a percentage point from a year earlier.
Improving Prospects As TRW Inc.
In 1965, in another look toward the future, Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge adopted a shorter, less cumbersome name, the now household initials TRW Inc. Also in that year, the company's investment in aerospace and electronics became increasingly clear. In the previous decade, sales in space and electronics shot up from $14 million to $200 million. Despite that dramatic growth, the company's earnings still came mostly from its oldest business, auto parts. New and replacement parts accounted for 34 percent of TRW's $553 million in sales and 40 percent of its earnings. Chief among those products were its steering linkages, valves, and braking devices that it sold to General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler Corporation.
TRW's prospects improved in 1966. An auto parts boom helped the company's profitability. The Cleveland-based automotive group had a return of 6 percent on sales of $350 million. The equipment group, also in Cleveland, had an increase of sales to $200 million in aerospace and ordinance technology but lower profit margins because of start-up costs for unexpected demand in commercial aircraft. The Los Angeles-based TRW Systems had $250 million in sales and a 3 percent profit margin building and designing spacecraft and doing research. Totals were up to $870 million in sales for TRW, producing $36 million in profit for a 4.2 percent return. Even with the upturn in sales, the company was relying less on government contracts, down to about 44 percent from 70 percent ten years earlier.
With the company's finances on the upturn, the wrangling between Los Angeles and Cleveland declined. As Business Week reported, the discord was "under control, if not cured." The company continued tightening its operations in 1966. It bought United Carr, producer of automotive electronics, with $122 million in sales and sold its one consumer business, a hi-fi manufacturer. The late 1960s saw TRW pioneer in such auto technologies as rack and pinion steering and antilock braking systems.
TRW had grown into a conglomerate, a term disliked by company management. In 1969 TRW operated six groups that, in turn, administered 55 divisions. The company derived 32 percent of its revenues from aerospace products and systems and computer software, 28 percent from vehicle components for autos and trucks, 23 percent from electronic components and communication, and 17 percent from industrial products ranging from mechanical fasteners to automated controls.
Company Perspectives:
In early 2003, TRW Automotive began a new adventure when it became independent from its former parent company. A new company with a distinguished past, TRW Automotive is now focused solely on the needs of the automotive market.
TRW Automotive is the global leader in automotive safety systems. One of the top 10 automotive suppliers in the world, the company designs, develops and produces one of the broadest arrays of active and passive safety products in the industry. Its active safety systems enhance vehicle control and assist in avoiding collisions—while its passive safety systems are designed to minimize injury in the event of an accident.
While TRW Automotive still has places to go, its Technology Roadmap offers a timeline for getting there—and getting drivers and passengers there more safely. The TRW Automotive team of more than 63,000 employees around the globe is driven by a single vision: Producing the high-quality, safety-enhancing products of today and pioneering the safety systems of tomorrow.
To manage the increasingly far-flung company, TRW maintained strict management control over all operations. By encouraging communication between all levels of management and holding monthly manager meetings, TRW avoided the problems that had plagued other conglomerates. Another of TRW's successful management styles caught Fortune 's eye in 1966. The magazine covered in depth the happenings of a TRW management meeting in Vermont, where 49 of the company's top executives had gathered annually since 1952 at an old farmhouse to think about the company's future.
TRW continued beefing up its auto parts business, acquiring Globe Industries, a Dayton-based maker of miniature AC and DC electric motors. At the same time, TRW's electronics group had grown to more than 20 plants in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The company continued to evade problems that had plagued other conglomerates, posting a slight pretax gain of 16.4 percent, above the industry average of 13.3 percent.
In 1969 TRW named a new president, Ruben F. Mettler. One of his first big projects was a contract for a laboratory that NASA would send on the Viking probe to Mars. TRW won the challenge to provide one black box weighing 33 pounds with complex instruments capable of making biological and chemical tests to detect the most primitive forms of life. The NASA contract was worth only $50 million, not a big financial risk for a multibillion-dollar company like TRW, but the job was important for the company's prestige.
The auto parts business, in the meantime, was once again proving to be immune to cyclical trends in car output. The market for new parts was in a slump, but it was made up for by the accompanying increase in demand for replacement cars as consumers kept their cars on the roads longer. TRW also announced a move into business credit reporting, challenging Dun & Bradstreet.
The company's sound financial condition was unmistakable. For the five years preceding 1970, the company had average annual earnings and sales increases of 27 percent and 23 percent, respectively. But officials conceded that the company could not keep growing at that rate forever. It had acquired 38 companies through 1968, a pace it would not be able to maintain indefinitely. The company looked for future growth to run about 10 percent.
Risky Ventures in the 1970s and Early 1980s
The company's skillful management again became apparent in 1971, when TRW was forced to make cuts because of an aerospace recession. Its TRW Systems division had to cut the number of employees by 15 percent. Managers were not spared cuts either; 18 percent of the professional staff was laid off. The company's open management style enabled TRW to build a strong enough relationship with its employees that two-thirds of them were nonunion, perhaps preventing the labor squabbles that had appeared in other companies. Meanwhile, in a move more clearly important in hindsight, TRW's auto business entered the field of occupant restraints through the purchase of the German firm Repa.
TRW made a risky venture in 1976, entering the tricky market of electronic point-of-sale (POS) machines. Those machines had boosted profits for retailers, but not for manufacturers. Its proposed 2001 system targeted the general market and cost $4,000 per unit, similar to competitors. TRW's move into POS was largely a defensive tactic. The electronic credit authorization business it had pioneered in the 1960s was coming under increasing competition. Then NCR, the overall leader in POS machines, launched a POS system incorporating credit checking in 1975. TRW attempted to enter the market with an established customer base by acquiring the service contracts for the 65,000 customers Singer had built up during its short, ill-fated move into the POS market. TRW remained cautious, however, delivering only 200 to 300 machines in 1976, mostly to the May Co. Altogether that year nonfood retailers ordered 24,500 POS terminals worth $94 million, and the market was picking up.
In 1976 TRW achieved the moment of glory it had long awaited with Viking's historic landing on Mars. The company took out full-page newspaper ads proclaiming "That lab is our baby." Appropriately, Mettler, 52, who had pushed for TRW to compete for the Viking contract, was named to succeed Horace A. Shepard as chairman and chief executive officer when Shepard retired the next year.
Aerospace ventures continued to play an important role in the company's finances. In 1977 TRW was still the chief engineer for U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles. Aerospace and government electronic revenues were providing a cool $60 million in profits on revenue of $440 million. The electronics division had $300 million in sales. The data communications unit was also doing well with over $150 million in sales. It had established a retail credit bureau, a business credit system, and was an international maker of data communications equipment. Nevertheless, auto and commercial parts were still accounting for twice as much in sales and five times as much in earnings.
Key Dates:
- 1901:
- Cleveland Cap Screw Co. is founded in Cleveland, Ohio.
- 1926:
- Company is renamed Thompson Products Co.
- 1953:
- Specializing in missile systems, Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation is formed in Los Angeles with backing from Thompson Products.
- 1958:
- The two companies merge as Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation.
- 1965:
- Company is renamed TRW Inc.
- 1972:
- Through purchase of the German firm Repa, TRW's auto business enters the field of occupant restraints.
- 1989:
- TRW acquires Talley Industries Inc.'s driver-side air bag unit.
- 1996:
- TRW divests its Information Systems and Services unit, which is later renamed Experian Corp.
- 1997:
- The air bag and steering wheel businesses of Magna International Inc. are acquired.
- 1999:
- British auto-parts maker LucasVarity plc is acquired for $7 billion.
- 2002:
- Northrop Grumman Corporation acquires TRW in an $11.8 billion deal.
- 2003:
- The Blackstone Group, L.P. acquires TRW's automotive unit, which begins operating as TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. and is based in Livonia, Michigan.
- 2004:
- Blackstone takes TRW Automotive public.
In 1980 TRW and Fujitsu Limited, Japan's largest computer maker, formed a joint venture. TRW had a 3,000-person service organization, reportedly the largest independent network in the United States for data process maintenance, with a special team to develop software. Each company invested $100 million, with Fujitsu keeping a 51 percent share and TRW, 45 percent. TRW initiated the venture, seeking a foreign partner to perform maintenance work for its POSs. Fujitsu, which earned 68 percent of its revenue from data processing, was eager to expand overseas to increase its economies of scale to compete with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) back home. Fujitsu named a majority of the directors of the new company so it could qualify for Japanese export and financing tax breaks, but TRW took charge of running it. One of the new company's first moves was to buy TRW's ailing POS and ATM maker division. The company, hoping in the beginning to capture a large segment of the small and medium-sized computer market, predicted sales of $500 million to $1 billion by the decade's end.
Despite TRW's careful planning, the POS and Fujitsu deals both proved unsuccessful. The competition from established POS makers, particularly IBM and NCR, was too great. Nonetheless, TRW remained a strong, highly visible company. Forbes in 1983 called it "a paragon" for other conglomerates. It had by then grown to $5 billion in sales spread across 47 different businesses and had 300 locations in 25 countries. It had also grown to be the number one producer of valves for automobiles and aircraft plus a wide range of other products. With a 16 percent return on stockholders' equity as proof, Forbes called TRW one of the best managed, most successful American companies. This outward success, however, belied the company's growing inefficiency.
Late 1980s and Early 1990s: Restructuring, Auto Products, Air Bags
By the time Joseph T. Gorman was named president and chief operating officer of TRW in 1985 (he became chairman, president, and chief executive officer in 1988 when Chairman Ruben Mettler retired), the company had grown bloated, inefficient, and overdiversified. It hit a low in 1985 when it lost $7 million on sales of $5.92 billion. Mettler and Gorman instituted a three-year restructuring plan that aimed to focus resources on core businesses, to slash staff, and to increase efficiency. The new TRW would concentrate on three main areas: automotive products, space and defense projects, and information systems and services. Among the noncore businesses divested were the firm's energy division. Staff was reduced from 93,200 in 1985 to 73,200 in 1988.
From 1986 to 1990, TRW's financial outlook improved somewhat with the new corporate structure. Although sales rose each year to a high of $8.17 billion in 1990, profits were stagnant and actually fell from 3.7 percent in 1988 to 3.6 percent in 1989 to 2.6 percent in 1990.
In 1989 TRW made a huge and risky commitment to what at the time was an unprofitable business: air bags. That year it purchased Talley Industries Inc.'s driver-side air bag unit for $85 million, plus royalties on any air bag sold in North America through the year 2001. TRW also began to invest in the development of passenger-side air bags. In total, the company invested more than half a billion dollars in its air-bag business by 1992. Until the fourth quarter of 1991, TRW lost money on air bags. Although Ford had chosen TRW as its sole supplier of the safety devices in 1989, TRW's fortunes suffered in 1990 because of a Ford recall of 55,000 vehicles with defective air bags and a massive fire at TRW's passenger-side air-bag plant (TRW air bags used sodium azide as its propellant, a chemical prone to explode in the manufacturing process). TRW's automotive business also suffered from a recession in the automotive industry in 1989 and 1990.
The space and defense sectors of TRW were also suffering from the end of the Cold War and the resultant leveling off in defense spending. With its two main sectors down, overall TRW sales for 1991 fell 3.1 percent to $7.91 billion. Gorman embarked on another restructuring late that year, incurring a $365 million charge that resulted in a $140 million loss for the year. This restructuring aimed to remake TRW into primarily an automotive products company, with reduced operations and investments in the space and defense and information sectors. With air bags now profitable and generating $600 million in annual revenue, the company aimed to take advantage of their increasing popularity with consumers and the mandatory inclusion of dual air bags in vehicles by the year 1998. Gorman also set his sights on overseas markets not only for air bags but also for TRW's power-steering systems and engine valves.
By 1994, TRW's automotive operations accounted for 63 percent of total sales, compared to 56 percent in 1992 (and 40 percent in the early 1980s), whereas space and defense accounted for only 31 percent, compared to 35 percent in 1992 (and 50 percent in the early 1980s). The defense operations were also reduced, with sales to the U.S. government falling to 28 percent of total sales, compared to the 45 percent figure of the late 1980s. Meanwhile, international sales accounted for 35 percent of total sales in 1994 (compared to 25 percent in 1985), led by sales to Japanese automakers of $800 million. The 1994 sales total of $9.09 billion represented a 14.3 percent increase over the previous year. On the negative side, Talley Industries brought a lawsuit against TRW in 1994, which resulted in a $138 million judgment against TRW the following year.
Late 1990s: Divesting Info Systems Unit, Bolstering Auto Business Through Acquisitions
Further paring down to the core, TRW in 1996 sold off the bulk of its TRW Information Systems and Services Inc. unit for a little more than $1 billion to a buyout group led by Thomas H. Lee Co. and Bain Capital, Inc. (The new owners quickly resold the unit, now named Experian Corp., to the Great Universal Stores plc, a U.K. firm later renamed GUS plc.) Later in 1996 TRW closed several of its automotive plants and laid off 2,300 workers amid increased competition in the automotive safety system sector. The following year proceeds from the information systems divestiture were used to help fund two significant acquisitions. On the automotive side, TRW bought majority control of the air bag and steering wheel businesses of Magna International Inc. for about $418 million. The units, based in Germany, had 1996 sales of $688 million. Also acquired in 1997 was BDM International Inc., a provider of information technology to the government and defense sectors. BDM, based in McLean, Virginia, was bought for about $975 million, making the deal the largest yet in TRW's history. Late in 1997 TRW pulled the plug on its $3.5 billion Odyssey satellite system, a joint venture with Montreal-based Teleglobe Inc. After years of development, TRW had been unable to secure sufficient backing from other major telecommunications firms for this proposed satellite phone service.
Under intense pressure to cut costs to stay competitive, TRW announced plans in July 1998 to shut down more than a dozen of its automotive plants and cut that sector of its workforce by 7,500, aiming to eliminate about $100 million in annual operating costs. During this period, there was persistent speculation about (and pressure from Wall Street for) a breakup of the company—specifically, a spinoff of the automotive operations that would enable TRW to concentrate solely on the better-performing space, defense, and information operations. There was much surprise and some skepticism as well, then, when TRW in January 1999 agreed to acquire the British auto-parts firm LucasVarity plc for $7 billion in cash. LucasVarity, the product of a 1996 merger of Lucas Industries Plc and Varity Corporation, was a leading producer of automotive brakes, and the merger was expected to enable TRW to make integrated systems involving TRW's steering and suspension components and the acquired firm's brakes. The combination was expected to yield annual cost savings of between $200 million and $300 million. The deal closed in May 1999.
The acquisition of LucasVarity pushed TRW's debt load to a staggering $9.3 billion. Gorman had to find ways to relieve the company of some of this burden, and toward a goal of cutting debt by $2.5 billion TRW divested several noncore automotive units by early 2000. The largest unit jettisoned was Lucas Diesel Systems, maker of diesel fuel-injection parts, sold to Delphi Automotive Systems Corporation for $871 million. Late in 1999, in the meantime, David M. Cote was brought onboard as president and chief operating officer as well as heir apparent to Gorman. Cote was a 25-year veteran of General Electric Company (GE), where he most recently served as head of the $5.6 billion appliances unit.
Ending of the TRW Conglomerate Era with 2002 Northrop Grumman Takeover
TRW's automotive operations now generated nearly two-thirds of TRW's sales, which totaled $17.2 billion in 2000. That year, a slowdown in the U.S. auto industry led to a 17 percent drop in profits to $471.2 million. After Cote took over as CEO in February 2001 (and then chairman that summer), he cut several thousands jobs from the payroll, replaced eight key executives, and reduced the massive debt by about $1 billion. In contrast to the more autocratic Gorman, Cote moved to decentralize the TRW operations, consolidating the firm's automotive businesses into one unit, TRW Automotive, based in Livonia, Michigan. Analysts continued to call for the divestment of the automotive unit, but Cote's hands were tied: The still massive debt and a slumping auto industry made such a move next to impossible.
Cote also did not stick around long enough for conditions to become favorable for such a move. In February 2002 he abruptly resigned when offered the chance to succeed Lawrence Bossidy, his mentor at GE, as head of Honeywell International Inc. Cote's stunning departure precipitated a slide in TRW's stock, which opened the door for a near immediate hostile takeover bid by Northrop Grumman Corporation, which offered $47 per share, or about $5.8 billion in stock, plus the assumption of $5 billion in debt. TRW, now led on an interim basis by Philip Odeen, who had run the firm's Washington office for many years before semi-retiring, quickly rejected the offer and announced plans to sell off its aeronautical systems unit and to spin the automotive unit off to shareholders. Northrop raised its bid to $53 per share in April, bumping the total price up to $11.9 billion, but TRW continued to resist. In June the company reached an agreement to sell the aeronautical unit to Goodrich Corporation for $1.5 billion (a deal completed in October), and it also began soliciting bids for all or parts of the company from other defense firms. BAE Systems plc, General Dynamics Corporation, and Raytheon Company all submitted bids, but in the end Northrop prevailed by boosting its bid again, to $60 a share, or $7.8 billion plus the assumption of $4 billion in debt.
New Beginnings As TRW Automotive Holdings Corp.
Northrop Grumman completed its takeover of TRW in December 2002. In the interim, Northrop found a buyer for TRW Automotive. The Blackstone Group, L.P., a privately held investment firm, agreed to buy the unit in a $4.72 billion deal announced in November and completed in February 2003. The newly named TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. was headed by John C. Plant, who had been president and CEO of the former TRW's automotive business since 2001. He had come to TRW via the LucasVarity acquisition. TRW Automotive, which reported first-year revenues in 2003 of $11.35 billion, stood as one of the ten largest automotive suppliers in North America with significant operations in Europe as well. Primarily focused on active and passive safety- and security-related automotive parts and systems, the new TRW also produced steering systems, engine valves, fasteners, and suspension components.
Blackstone took TRW public in February 2004, selling 24.1 million shares of common stock at $28 per share. This reduced Blackstone's 78.4 percent stake in TRW to 56.7 percent, and Northrop Grumman's interest from 19.6 percent to 17.2 percent. (Northrop sold 7.26 million of its TRW shares in early 2005, further reducing its stake to just under 10 percent.) TRW Automotive got off to a rough start because of the continuing struggles of U.S. automakers, who were placing intense pricing pressure on their suppliers, and because of high raw-material costs. As it sought future growth through emerging areas of auto safety such as side and curtain air bags, front crash sensors, vehicle stability systems, and tire pressure monitoring systems, TRW also was targeting growth in China by setting up several ventures there. TRW worked as well to pay down its still heavy debt load, a hangover from a combination of debt inherited from the former TRW and debt incurred through Blackstone's leveraged buyout. Cost-cutting efforts helped cut long-term debt from $3.71 billion to $3.12 billion during 2004. The following year the company announced the closure of several more plants as well as a modest acquisition. In September 2005 TRW reached an agreement to acquire majority control of Dalphi Metal Espana, S.A. for $240 million. Based in Madrid, Spain, Dalphi produced steering wheels and air bags for a variety of Europan carmakers, making for a nice fit with TRW's existing operations.
Principal Subsidiaries
Kelsey-Hayes Company; Lake Center Industries Transportation Inc.; REMSA of America, Inc.; TRW Automotive Inc.; TRW Automotive U.S. LLC; TRW Safety Systems Inc.; TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Inc.; TRW Occupant Restraint Systems GmbH (Austria); SM Sistemas Modulares Ltda. (Brazil); TRW Automotive Ltda. (Brazil); Kelsey-Hayes Canada Limited; TRW Canada Limited; CSG TRW Chassis Systems (China); Shanghai TRW Automotive Safety Systems Co., Ltd. (China); TRW Automotive Component Technical Service (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (China); TRW Automotive Components (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (China); TRW Automotive Research & Development Co., Ltd. (China); TRW Engine Components (Langfang) Corp. Ltd. (China); TRW Fawer Commercial Vehicle Steering Company Ltd. (China); TRW System Consulting Services Shanghai Co., Ltd. (China); Lucas Autobrzdy s.r.o. (Czech Republic); LucasVarity s.r.o. (Czech Republic); TRW Autoelektronika s.r.o. (Czech Republic); TRW Carr s.r.o. (Czech Republic); TRW-DAS a.s. (Czech Republic); TRW Volant a.s. (Czech Republic); Autocruise SA (France); La Source Composants Moteurs S.A. (France); TRW Automotive Distribution France S.A.S.; TRW Carr France SNC; TRW Composants Moteurs S.A. (France); TRW France S.A.S.; TRW Systemes de Freinage S.A.S. (France); Lucas Automotive GmbH (Germany); TRW Advanced Plastics Technologies GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); TRW Airbag Systems GmbH (Germany); TRW Automotive Electronics & Components GmbH & Co. KG (Germany); TRW Automotive GmbH (Germany); TRW Automotive Safety Systems GmbH (Germany); TRW KFZ Ausrustung GmbH (Germany); TRW Automotive Italia S.p.A. (Italy); TRW Automotive Ricambi Italia SpA (Italy); TRW Aftermarket Japan Co. Ltd.; TRW Automotive Japan Co., Ltd.; TRW Controls & Fasteners Inc. (Korea); TRW Overseas Inc. (Korea); Lucas Automotive Sdn Bdh (Malaysia); LucasVarity (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia); TRW Steering & Suspension (M) Sdn. Bhd. (Malaysia); Forjas y Maquinas, S.A. de C.V. (Mexico); Frenos y Mecanismos SA de CV (Mexico); Reinvestmientos Especiales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V.; TRW Electronica Ensambles S.A. de C.V. (Mexico); TRW Occupant Restraints de Chihuahua SA de CV (Mexico); TRW Sistemas de Direcciones, S.A. de C.V. (Mexico); TRW Steering Wheel Systems de Chihuahua SA de CV (Mexico); TRW Vehicle Safety Systems de Mexico S.A. de C.V.; TRW Braking Systems Polska Sp. z o.o. (Poland); TRW Polska Sp. z o.o. (Poland); TRW Steering Systems Poland Sp.z o.o.; Lucas Automotive Pecas e Automoveis, Ltda. (Portugal); TRW Automotive Safety Systems S.R.L. (Romania); TRW Occupant Restraints South Africa Inc.; Eurofren Brakes, S.L.U. (Spain); TRW Automotive Espana, S.L. (Spain); TRW Switzerland GmbH; LucasVarity (Thailand) Co. Ltd.; TRW Steering & Suspension Co. Ltd. (Thailand); TRW Otomotiv Dagitim ve Ticaret A.S.(Turkey); Components Venezolanos de Direccion, S.A. (Venezuela); TRW Automotive Systems Ltd. (U.K.); TRW Fastening Systems Ltd. (U.K.); TRW Limited (U.K.); TRW LucasVarity Electric Steering Ltd. (U.K.); TRW Steering Systems Ltd. (U.K.); TRW Systems Ltd. (U.K.).
Principal Competitors
Delphi Corporation; Robert Bosch GmbH; Continental Teves, Inc.; Visteon Corporation; Koyo Seiko Co., Ltd.; ZF Friedrichshafen AG; Advics Co., Ltd.; Autoliv, Inc.; Takata Corporation; Key Safety Systems, Inc.; Illinois Tool Works Inc.; Raymond Limited; Nifco Inc.; Textron Inc.; Leopold Kostal GmbH & Co. KG; Valeo; Tokai Rika Co., Ltd.; Eaton Corporation.
Further Reading
Ball, Jeffrey, and Robert Frank, "TRW to Buy LucasVarity for $7 Billion," Wall Street Journal, January 29, 1999, p. A3.
Berss, Marcia, "Nothing Is in the Bag," Forbes, March 4, 1991, p. 97.
Dyer, Davis, TRW: Pioneering Technology and Innovation Since 1900, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1998, 503 p.
England, Robert Stowe, "Less Sizzle, More Steak," Financial World, August 4, 1992, pp. 20-21.
Fehr-Snyder, Kerry, "TRW Threatens to Fight $138 Million Trial Ruling: Talley Wins Lawsuit over Sale of Air-Bag Business," Phoenix Gazette, June 8, 1995, p. C1.
Flint, Jerry, "The TRW Way," Forbes, July 31, 1995, pp. 45-46.
Galuszka, Peter, "Air Bags Are Deflating TRW," Business Week, May 18, 1998, pp. 111, 114.
Gerdel, Thomas W., "Northrop Bids to Take Over TRW," Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 23, 2002, p. A1.
――――, "TRW Enters New Era: Purchase Puts Company Back on Growth Path," Cleveland Plain Dealer, January 31, 1999, p. 1H.
――――, "TRW Plans to Sell Four Major Units," Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 18, 1999, p. 1C.
――――, "TRW's Heir Apparent," Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 16, 2000, p. 1H.
――――, "Walking a Tightrope at TRW: Huge Debt Limits Options As New Chief Seeks Profit Boost," Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 16, 2001, p. C1.
Gerdel, Thomas W., and Peter Krouse, "The Stewards of TRW: Three CEOs Have Had the Same Title, but Distinctly Different Tasks," Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 30, 2002, p. G1.
Gerdel, Thomas W., and Sandra Livingston, "TRW Plans to Close Valve Plant," Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 19, 2001, p. A1.
Kosdrosky, Terry, "TRW Purchase Part of Move to Smaller, Targeted Deals," Crain's Detroit Business, September 12, 2005, p. 3.
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――――, "TRW to Northrop: Sold! $7.8 Billion Stock Deal to Shut Down Lyndhurst Operation," Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 2, 2002, p. A1.
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—update: David E. Salamie