Timken Bolsters Resources to Support Growth in Heavy-Duty Truck Aftermarket

CANTON, Ohio, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- When the road gets rough, sometimes it pays to keep on trucking. Timken did that during the recessionary year of 2009, and managed a modest sales increase in the North American heavy-duty truck aftermarket, despite the industry being down an estimated 20 percent.

(Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100120/CL40442 )

"More and more, we're finding customers want to buy Timken products to ensure they get the most mileage for their money," said Phil Varner, Timken heavy-duty aftermarket manager. "We have proven quality advantages and a very popular training program that together have built a lot of trust in our brand."

Timken has focused on three things to drive growth in the aftermarket for heavy-duty trucks:

1. Leveraging Timken's quality advantage: The Timken^® case-carburized tapered roller bearings produced in North America last seven times longer than competitors'(1);
2. Extending Timken's reach throughout the aftermarket via reps, dealers and distributors; and
3. Pull-focused marketing to get Timken specified by fleets and operators.

The company is adding several new positions in 2010 to support increased demand from these initiatives. Tom Tecklenburg, director – Timken automotive and heavy-duty aftermarket, announced the addition of two new regional managers and a national accounts manager, both reporting to Varner.

Among the new posts, Mark Stangl was appointed regional manager – heavy-duty aftermarket to focus on creating "pull" demand from key heavy-truck fleets working with sales representatives and independent rep agencies. Stangl joined Timken in June 1997 and has held various positions in engineering, sales and product management. His most recent role was specialist – fleet sales CTS. He has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Rose Hulman Institute of Technology and received his MBA from Kent State University in 2001.

Richard Moss was appointed to the position of national accounts manager – heavy-duty aftermarket, with responsibility for national program buying groups, key distributors and the interface with OE sales in developing and growing OE dealer sales. Moss joined Timken in October 1997 and has held various positions within aftermarket sales. His most recent role was marketing segment manager – heavy-duty. He has a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

An additional regional manager position remains open.

"With everything we're doing to meet the demand for Timken's products in the heavy-duty aftermarket, from reps, to dealers, to training and more people on the street, we're effectively quadrupling our channel resources, and we are confident it's the right thing to do for our customers," said Tecklenburg.

For additional technical resources and more information about Timken's full range of products and services for the heavy duty aftermarket, visit:

www.timken.com/en-us/solutions/automotive/aftermarket/heavyduty/Pages/default.aspx

About The Timken Company

The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR, http://www.timken.com) keeps the world turning, with innovative friction management and power transmission products and services, enabling our customers' machinery to perform more efficiently and reliably. With sales of $5.7 billion in 2008 and operations in 26 countries, Timken is Where You Turn™ for better performance.

(1) Case-carburized tapered roller bearings commonly used in heavy-truck axles and wheel-ends, bearing life test results citing median life relative to Timken: All bearings tested (Timken, A, B, C and D) were case-carburized, all commercially available and produced in North America by top competitors of Timken, with information derived from Timken Standard Life Testing, using significant statistical samplings of bearings in controlled test environment.

SOURCE The Timken Company