AST buying Moton

[signes]

I posted this in another thread but aus correctly suggested the news deserves its own thread. Interesting about Moton being in distress prior to the deal.

This was posted on the Vorshlag board:

In summary: AST Suspension (Holland) purchased Moton Suspension (Holland) this week. Moton USA headquarters will move into the same AST-USA facility located in Dallas, just 5 miles down the road from Vorshlag, on Monday. Things are happening fast, but the reality is a great shock brand and their long standing catalog of shock models has been saved from the chopping block by the folks that own AST.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian @ AST-USA
We will be releasing more information soon, probably at the beginning of next week. This all began with a conversation over dinner while I was in Holland. Moton (in Holland) was filing for bankruptcy. My suggestion was instead of celebrating, why not continue a brand which is one of the top brands in the world? And that is what we plan to do. While there is some overlap that we will address, in the grand scheme of things there isn't much that needs to change. So the combination of the two companies is a compliment to the hard work Moton did in building the loyal following it has today. I don't know all the details yet, but here is what I do know.

Moton will operate as a separate company from AST.

This means Moton parts go in Motons. AST parts go in ASTs. I'm sure down the road there is a possibility of sharing but never to diminish one product for another or to save money. If anything, both will be stronger. We will operate (both AST and Moton) in North America out of one facility, but Holland will keep two separate facilities. This makes sense since the Dutch companies are 45 minutes apart and the U.S. ones are 800 miles apart.

Rebuilding a Moton or an AST is more similar than you might think. We already have most of the tools and will be able to service Motons very soon. Holland is beginning to ramp up production as well so we will have inventory up again very soon.
Don't take this as bad news for Moton - this is a good thing. Rest assured, Moton build quality will only go up after this, and the great things you love about Moton will still be here.

There should be no issues with current Moton customers with respect to service, rebuilds, and upgrades. The best products Moton offered before will still be around and only get better, as there wasn't much direct shock model overlap between AST and Moton (with a few exceptions). There was and is some commonality in "design philosophies" between AST/Moton, in certain models, which means rebuilding one is very similar to the other. Just like there are some common design similarities in other monotubes like JRZ, Penske and Ohlins.

There have been things going on in the background for a few weeks with the acquisition, and for the past year with respect to Motons money trouble. Basically a company losing market share that was in major financial arrears has been bought by a company growing massively in market share in much better financial shape, that has proven quality and performance (see: 2011 GRAND AM dominance), and that has a dramatically larger machining capability.

Also, Vorshlag will become a Moton dealer, which we've been planning for the past few weeks. We have already been working with and providing camber plates for Moton customers for many years, have seen them apart, know the dyno plots, work with the various strut and shock models, and driven them at the track many times. We already know the best Moton models, the models to avoid, the options that work, the ones that don't. We will add the appropriate Moton shocks to the Vorshlag website shortly. These will compliment the already thorough range of shock options AST already makes, with even more car model coverage that Moton is known for.

Stay tuned for the press release and more details.

Thanks,
Terry @ Vorshlag

[JAJ]

As I understand the industry lore, JRZ, Moton and AST were all started by different senior technical people that left Koni to seek their fortunes making specialized dampers for racing applications.

If you do the math, particularly in light of the impact on the racing community of the economic downturn in 2008/2009, there was just too much capacity chasing too little market. Between Europe and North America, you have Penske, Ohlins, Moton, JRZ and AST as specialty suppliers fighting amongst themselves for the same pool of customers. Meanwhile, the integrated automotive OEMS like Koni, Bilstein and Multimatic see racing as a marketing tool, so they're bringing out new products that are very competitive as well.

Every industry uses the small specialty suppliers as crash-test dummies for the industry majors. If the little guys make a successful product, the big guys bury them. If they don't, they bury themselves.

[mastek]

I think this is good news

Moton has had awful service for years -- and AST has been building a great reputation.
If Moton product quality is retained and AST Service quality remains/improves -- this should be a win for everyone.