After months of planning and negotiation, agreement has been reached on a significant merger in the Specialist Automotive sector. The merger facilitates a number of synergies; incorporating automotive parts wholesaling and distribution, motor racing, 4WD parts and accessories and the retail franchising industry.
Opposite Lock Holdings Pty Ltd, Revolution Racegear Pty Ltd, Proex Pty Ltd, OL Fleet Pty Ltd and OL Global Pty Ltd, have now merged to form the RPM Group of companies.
For nearly three decades, Proex has been well known to automotive aftermarket resellers as a market leader in the aftermarket exhaust and performance segment. The brand of product that they distribute has grown to include a number of market-leading brands, including; Hayman Reese towbars, Redback and Lukey exhausts, Genie/Lukey Headers, and Redback/Cateran catalytic converters. The association with Opposite Lock, which started merely as a commercial supply chain arrangement, continued to a full merger and turned out to be a totally natural fit. So the pooling of resources, intellectual property, popular brands, together with strong and committed management, became an inevitable outcome.
RPM is the undisputed brand leader in safety race gear for the motor racing fraternity, and has been synonymous with and exclusively distributed by Revolution Racegear, the holding company, for the last two decades. This gave birth to the Group’s new name.
In the view of the Board of Directors, as expressed by Chairman, Lawrence Jaffe, “this merger marks the beginning of a new era for both companies and adds a new dimension to our diversified franchised operations. The wide range of top branded products, whether imported, locally manufactured or merely sourced from traditional suppliers, together with the entire supply chain and streamlining of the business, will reflect positively very soon on our bottom line”.
Clive Finkelstein, Opposite Lock’s Managing Director, is very confident and upbeat about the merger; “which will strengthen the various companies from many points of view as well as enhance the synergies, assist immeasurably in building the profiles of our various brands in their respective markets and have a positive impact on our service delivery levels. We have established this robust structure to strengthen our position in this industry, by consolidating our resources for the increased benefit of both customers and franchisees.”
Rob Spilkin, a director of RPM commented; “We’re pleased with the way the restructure has proceeded, it’s an excellent culture-fit. The new Group provides us with extra scale that has improved the supply chain business model considerably. We will focus on continuously improving our service to the trade, and use benefits that the Opposite Lock and Revolution Racegear businesses bring to strengthen and grow the supply chain platform further”.