FUCHS & Nye - Two Years Later
In January 2020 Nye Lubricants became a member of the FUCHS Group of Companies, the world’s largest independent lubricant manufacturer. As we celebrate the two-year anniversary of this acquisition, our executive leadership team reflects on how this change has positively affected our customers and our business.
A: Brad Richardson, Vice President of Business Development
From the business development perspective, we are at the early stages of presenting our combined and leveraged capabilities as one organization with developing opportunities. We’re always thinking about what is best for our customers and how FUCHS and Nye can utilize our capabilities to better serve them. We have been quite active in the Automotive OEM segment with our colleagues around the world, specifically in the automotive interiors and components sub-segments. Nye division’s automotive team has been engaged to a greater extent around automotive Global and Local Business Segments, learning the FUCHS product line and offering a combination of Nye and FUCHS materials in the solution sell.
Leveraging relationships is a big part of our combined forces where we can accommodate accounts in a broad range of segments that both the Nye division and FUCHS play in, though perhaps in traditionally different capacities (i.e. MRO consumable versus “lubed for life” applications). Together, Nye and FUCHS offer a breadth of lubrication products and services that allow us to act as a Total Solutions Provider
Globally, we have begun the work through our global FUCHS affiliates in place of our previous Channel Partners. Some exceptions are where a few CPs remain engaged with the respective FUCHS affiliates managing supply while the given CP remains as the sales and opportunity development side. For the most part and in addition to developing new business, our affiliates will be managing supply to all regions outside of the US This will take advantage of the far-flung international supply network that FUCHS represents and present one face to the customer globally.
A: Joe Brooks, Director of Global Sales
FUCHS brings a fully integrated global network with local technical sales support and product availability from the most comprehensive portfolio of lubricant solutions in the industry. Our integrated network of collaborative teams provides a cohesive approach to serving our globally dispersed customers ensuring that we are in-tune with capability needs today and in the future. Working with a local FUCHS affiliate enhances the partnership we offer our customers and helps ensures their success.
A: Dr. Jason Galary, Senior Director of R&D & Director of Quality
Over the past two years, the Research and Development teams at Nye and FUCHS have created a very close relationship built upon each group’s technical excellence and experience. The partnership between these two companies has allowed R&D to take advantage of the unique set of expertise’s each group has and is paving the way for increasing our innovation power. Through our combined technical community both in the Americas and globally, we will be more agile and able to accelerate our time to market both of which will improve our customer experience.
One element that Nye has brought to the FUCHS technical community in the America’s is our Applied Science, Tribology, and Application Engineering labs. These teams supplement an already strong R&D group with deeper fundamental research in Tribology and Rheology and the ability to simulate and replicate our customer test stands in our lab. Through bringing these groups together, we have now improved our ability to provide greater value to our customer and develop strong technical relationships with them. This combined with a much broader portfolio of technologies now available, allows us to provide a complete product and technical offering to our customers. The strength of our technical community, product offerings, and global strengths emphasize why FUCHS is first choice.
The road ahead for R&D at FUCHS is bright as we bring the community even closer together, working in a variety of new markets and research areas. Whether it is enabling our customers new technologies in E-Mobility or fundamental research into new materials, test methods, and processes; our R&D team at FUCHS will be leading the way to develop new technology that will enable the future applications of our customers and create a greater sustainability for our world.
A: Erik Lawson, Vice President of Operations
Nye and FUCHS have entered into a partnership that combines the best qualities of both companies with the objective of serving our customers. FUCHS and Nye have many similarities throughout Operations but differ on the kind of products, scale, scope and customer requirements that drive the Operations strategy. This diversity is important to FUCHS and is being leveraged to the company’s advantage. What Nye Operations brings to the equation is small batch production, manufacturing flexibility, broad range of packaging, high quality standards, and customized solutions.
FUCHS introduced organizational scope, equipment engineering and global manufacturing standards to strengthen Nye’s Operations while also integrating FUCHS manufacturing at our Fairhaven location. This includes but is not limited to product line transfers, chemistry consolidations, and acquisitions. In addition to expanding the scope of products produced at Nye, the organic growth in current business has also expanded due to distribution scale, sales collaboration and product breadth of the FUCHS business. Nye output will have almost doubled by the end of 2022 and there are plans to expand the manufacturing footprint at the Nye Fairhaven site that will add jobs and further establish Nye as a key Operations component in the FUCHS business.
A: George Mock, President
Since joining the FUCHS Group in January 2020, Nye has emerged as a thriving new operating division of FUCHS Lubricants Company here in North America. We retain our traditional value proposition providing engineered lubricants for a variety of specialty industrial and technical applications.
There are three pillars to Nye’s membership in the FUCHS group: technology, small-volume manufacturing and global reach. Our R&D group is now well integrated with FUCHS globally, bringing significant new technical capability and collaborative research and development. Our flexible small-volume manufacturing capability is a new and expanding home for FUCHS specialty products, and last but not least FUCHS’ global footprint provides significantly greater global reach for our products.
We have enjoyed significant sales growth in all our target markets since 2020, with FUCHS opening the doors to many new opportunities. The future is bright for Nye Lubricants.
