Collins & Aikman Realigns North American Interior Systems

<%=company1%> has reorganized to target the Company's focus on innovation, strengthen the leadership of its North American Interior Systems Division and lower operating costs.

Thomas E. Evans, Collins & Aikman's Chairman and CEO stated, "The changes we are announcing represent the second phase of our growth plans for Collins & Aikman. With the rapidly increasing use of telematics in vehicles, we believe that noise and sound management requirements will be drastically increasing which will require dramatic changes for OEMs and world-class automotive acoustic suppliers. Our new product development division will be focused full time on leveraging Collins & Aikman's unique leading acoustics and design/surface styling expertise, in order to develop totally new synergistic products for automotive interiors."

Evans also announced that Collins & Aikman has established a global purchasing and supply-chain management system to coordinate integrated procurement activities worldwide. "Over the short- term, our new global matrix purchasing function should enable Collins & Aikman to achieve additional purchasing synergies by better leveraging our sizeable purchasing power," Evans stated. "Longer term, we see even greater opportunities to increase our efficiency and to enhance customer productivity via participation in both OEM and supplier B2B Internet exchanges."

Edited by Anndrea Vorobej