Centric Parts, a manufacturer and supplier of aftermarket brake, clutch and chassis components, has announced the opening of the Chassis Center of Excellence at the company’s newest 16,000-square-foot facility in Madison Heights, Mich. The Center will allow Centric to consolidate and expand its chassis research and development programs under one roof, combining Centric personnel with the experienced team of chassis specialists and engineers from its Qualis Automotive division.
The new Center of Excellence will house an extensive reference library of OE and competitive chassis components, and will allow in-house testing of chassis parts by the expanded engineering team. This will further enhance Centric’s ability to be first to market with new part numbers and will allow the company to research, develop and test possible product improvements much more rapidly in-house.
“We have been a major participant in the suspension category for over 10 years,” said Paul Stewart, executive vice president of sales & marketing, “so we are excited to be opening our Chassis Center of Excellence as it will allow us to bring our industry-leading support and coverage to entirely new levels for our customers. As with the brake category, our goal is to provide our customers with the best value, enabling them to grow sales and profits.”
Besides the Chassis Center of Excellence, the new facility will also house Qualis accounting, category management, cataloging and engineering, which are relocating from the company’s Troy facility. The strategically located Madison Heights location also facilitates distribution of certain OE StopTech parts due to its proximity to the well-established Southern Michigan automotive sector.
The just announced Centric Parts chassis program will build on the existing program at Qualis Automotive, which has been an industry leader since 2003. The new Centric Parts chassis program currently includes over 8,500 Centric Premium SKUs, as well as nearly 2,000 C-Tek standard chassis components, which will be available for purchase starting in November of this year.
