Brembo has carefully translated its strong success on the race track into solid sales and brand recognition on the street.
With the rare exception of a Recaro, known for its sport seats, and Hurst, once a must-have shifter manufacturer, automotive suppliers usually work behind the scenes anonymously. But a small Italian parts manufacturer has suddenly started standing out from the crowd.
The brake manufacturer Brembo, in fact, is becoming so popular that its name alone added performance credibility to otherwise mundane brands – and can even help the most exclusive automotive manufacturers command a higher premium for their products.
Originally focused on Europe, Brembo is suddenly racking up orders from all three of the Detroit makers, General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group all turning to the Italian brake maker to bolster both the performance and image of their products.
GM has turned to Brembo for brake and wheel packages on cars such as the Cadillac CTS-V, the Chevrolet Camaro SS and the Corvette ZR-1, as well as the new Caddy XTS, not a model with especially high performance aspirations.
Chrysler, meanwhile, sourced Brembo for its Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT and will soon use its brakes on the long-awaited new SRT Viper. “Brembo brakes are great,” says Ralph Gilles, Chrysler chief designer and director of the SRT brand.
Thanai Bernardini, director of communications and institutional relations, noted Brembo is succeeding in turning the four-corners of the car housing the wheels and brakes into a “fashion statement.”
But fashion alone likely wouldn’t be enough to turn Brembo into a must-have option that can add $100s, even $1,000s to the price of a new vehicle.
In motorsports, Brembo-equipped teams have dominated the world of racing on two and four wheels since 1975. In Formula One, Brembo-equipped teams have won 22 F1 Manufacturers’ and 17 F1 Drivers’ championships, beginning with Niki Lauda, of Team Ferrari, in 1975 and, over the last two years with Sebastian Vettel, of the Red Bull-Renault team.
“As always, performance and style go together at Brembo, creating a unique expression of Italian elegance which makes vehicles equipped with our components look special and makes Brembo such a well-known brand in the world,” added Andrea Abbati Marescotti, Brembo’s chief executive officer, during a recent visit to the company’s North American headquarters and technical center in suburban Detroit.
Marescotti noted over the past two years alone Brembo has invested more $300 million to broaden its global footprint in Poland, China and North America.
In 2010, Brembo established its first technical center outside of Italy in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth. The establishment of the technical center followed Brembo’s 2007 acquisition of the Hayes Lemmerz brake disc division, noted Dan Sandberg, president and chief executive officer of Brembo North America, which is also based in Michigan.
Brembo now employs more than 500, most of them in Michigan, he said. More than 20% of Brembo’s $1.5 billion in worldwide sales now come from North America.
“But the big news for North America is the emergence of Brembo at the Big Three,” Sandberg said. “We’re second only to Germany, historically Brembo’s largest market.
Overall, Brembo now supplies high-performance brake systems for the most important manufacturers of cars, commercial vehicles and motorbikes worldwide.
It also manufactures clutches, seats, seat belts and other components specifically designed for racing, and is a leader in motorsports with more than 200 championship wins. Today the company operates in 15 countries on three continents with 36 production and business sites with a staff of 6,000 employees, about 10% of whom are engineering and product R&D specialists.
Brembo’s dominance in racing is not reserved for four-wheel vehicles as Brembo-equipped motorcycles have won the MotoGP Championship 21 of the past 24 years, including a run of 18 straight victories. In 2011, Brembo won its eleventh overall victory in twelve years at the 24 Hours of Le Mans
Brembo’s involvement in NASCAR isn’t as lengthy as the other series, beginning with Jeff Gordon and his Hendricks’ Chevrolet winning his NASCAR Cup championship in 1998. But since then, the Brembo Group’s racing products have equipped 13 of 14 championship teams, including Tony Stewart’s last season.