Tom Greco is determined the Fleet Pride-TruckPro merger announced in October will be successful.
In three years, the Fleet Pride CEO told attendees at Heavy Duty Aftermarket Dialogue (HDAD) Monday in Grapevine, Texas, presented by MacKay & Company and MEMA, he expected the suppliers would say it was a great deal, customers would say Fleet Pride is serving them better and team members would find new opportunities they would not have had with either individual company.
"If we can do all that, I'm very confident the financials would be something we can all be proud of," Greco says.
The combined company will have more than 450 stores and branches, 110 service locations, six distribution centers and three wholesale businesses around the U.S. and Canada.
"We're trying to retain all the good things from TruckPro, all of the good things that came from Fleet Pride," he says. "The integration is really about leveraging the scale of our combined assets and serving our customers better than either company was able to do prior to that."
Greco, formerly CEO of Frito Lay and Advanced Auto Parts, says a successful merger starts with culture.
"We're focused on culture right out of the gate," he says. Greco and his leadership team have been on the road since October's announcement, talking to customers team members and suppliers. The marketplace, he says, is "the biggest laboratory we have as a company."
Fleet Pride is putting the finishing touches on a multiyear strategy Greco says should be done by February. It will focus on building a stronger company that prioritizes employees, accelerate growth and unlock potential.
"We're going to be very focused on retaining our top people," Greco says. "The relationships they have with our customers are invaluable."
Greco says team members are proud of what they do and, in their list of things that motivate them to work, compensation isn't at the top of the list. He says Fleet Pride will focus on making frontline employees' job easier.
"There's a lot of things that we ask people to do in our branches that are task-oriented that take time away from serving our customers," he says.
Greco also says less time will be spent identifying synergies and more time will be spent figuring out how to grow the business, including building its presence online. Greco says everyone is chasing Amazon, even in heavy-duty.
"They've really reinvented the way people think about shopping for things," he says. He expects Fleet Pride to have a "formidable" digital presence that improves the online experience for its customers.
Another area where the company will spend more, Greco says, is on parts availability. He wants to get parts closer to the customer so they can be delivered more quickly.
"It's extremely important to be consistent in our delivery promise," he says.
To do that, Greco turned to the suppliers in attendance. Having spent 30 years on the supplier side, Greco says he knows how important supplier relationships are to Fleet Pride's success.
"We're not going to win long-term if you're not winning, too." adding the company is always open to talking to a potential supplier, particularly if that supplier comes bearing a unique solution in the market.
"Over time, we are looking for a longer-term strategic relationship with each of you," he says, and to that end, the company has set up a four-step process to use for joint business planning. This includes discovery, big-bet planning, a joint business plan, and reviewing that plan regularly.
"This is not just a meeting cadence," Greco adds. "This is about how we're going to invest, where we're going to invest, and how we're going to win with all of you."
