Republic file photo The Arvin Meritor building in Columbus, which was bought by Columbus Regional Health.
Cummins Inc.’s plans to acquire Meritor Inc. are reviving the history of a company that was once a household name in Bartholomew County – Arvin Industries.
Cummins said Tuesday it had reached a deal to acquire Meritor for $3.7 billion and become the owner of a company that many local residents remember as ArvinMeritor Inc., which was one of the largest employers in Bartholomew County at the turn of the century.
“As a lifelong resident of Columbus, it warms my heart to know that the skeleton of Arvin has found its way back to its proper resting place,” said Craig Kessler, chief investment officer at Kessler Investment Group. “…I know it had absolutely nothing to do with (Cummins’ decision), but nonetheless, as an innocent bystander, it does look like something that’s nice to have back in town.”
The company that would later be called Arvin Industries was co-founded by Bartholomew County native Q.G. Noblitt and his friend Frank Sparks in 1919 – the same year that Clessie Cummins launched Cummins Engine Co.
Initially called Indianapolis Air Pump Co., the company sold air pumps that could be used to repair flat tires. In 1927, the company changed its name to Noblitt-Sparks, reflecting the names of its co-founders, and would move its corporate headquarters to Columbus four years later.
The company then expanded, venturing to the manufacture of toys, automobile exhaust systems, radios and other products.
When World War II erupted, Noblitt-Sparks joined thousands of other industries in converting their operations to wartime production, including chemical and incendiary bombs, rocket-launching tubes, steel containers, fire extinguishers, anti-tank mine parts and parts for military vehicles. The company was recognized for its wartime service with “E” awards from the War Department.
In 1950, the company changed its name to Arvin Industries and would assume a global role, becoming a Fortune 500 company with 17,500 employees, including 4,500 in Indiana.
But Arvin’s ties to the community would start coming undone shortly after the turn of the century.
In 2000, Arvin merged with Troy, Michigan-based Meritor Automotive Inc., creating the 11th largest supplier of automotive systems and parts in the world at the time, with 36,500 employees in 25 countries.
In 1999, the two companies had combined sales exceeding Cummins’ sales at the time.
At the time, the merger was cast by company officials as vital to Arvin’s survival. The two companies proposed a merger because growth in the automotive market in the current economic climate was possible only through combined resources.
Then-Arvin President, Chairman and CEO V. William Hunt told the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce in 2006 that “we merged to survive.”
At first, the impact of the merger on the community appeared minimal. Columbus plants continued production, though the headquarters for the merged company was moved to Michigan.
Hunt, who was first in line to succeed the CEO of the newly merged company, left ArvinMeritor in 2001. He was paid $12.4 million after his resignation and formed a venture capital firm in Indianapolis.
Not long after that, the company began shedding its former Arvin properties, including many in south-central Indiana.
In 2003, the company announced it would cease operations at the Franklin plant, which employed 850. Shortly after that, ArvinMeritor signed an agreement to sell its exhaust tube facility in Bartholomew County to a subsidiary of AK Steel Inc.
In 2004, ArvinMeritor sold its 17th Street manufacturing plant to three Cleveland-based private investors. The plant, renamed Columbus Components Group, employed more than 500. It closed in 2009.
In 2006, the company sold the former Arvin headquarters, the Q.G. Noblitt building, to Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. for $2 million. The building now houses the school corporation’s administrative offices.
The following year, ArvinMeritor announced it would sell its Emissions Technologies business, largely comprised of former Arvin facilities, for $310 million to an equity investment firm. That operation since then has been sold again, to France-based Faurecia.
In 2011, ArvinMeritor changed its name to Meritor Inc., eliminating the last remnant of the former Columbus-based automotive supplier.
“Changing the company’s name back to Meritor gives us the opportunity to leverage the strength of the brand and build on it as we go forward,” said Meritor Chairman, CEO and President Chip McClure in a statement at the time.
However, one former city official told The Republic in 2007 that the 2000 merger a “disaster” for Columbus.
“I believe the merger … was a mistake for Meritor and a disaster for both Arvin and Columbus,” Booke E. Tuttle, former president of Columbus Economic Development Board told The Republic in 2007.
“When it merged with Meritor, Arvin lost its way – attention, respect, focus, resources – within the newly formed company,” Tuttle added. “As a result, Arvin lost its niche in the market and became one of many divisions of a larger company competing for attention, respect, focus and resources rather than competing in the marketplace.”
