If you’ve ever replaced your car’s brake parts before, there’s a good chance that you’ve run into brands like Centric, StopTech, or Raybestos. Collectively, these brands have been around for over a century and have provided OEM-quality or upgraded brake parts. But now, the brake repair world is about to get a whole lot sadder as all three of these brands are about to disappear.
Back in September 2025, our Thomas Hundal wrote about how First Brands Group, the owner of huge names in the car parts, maintenance, and DIY space, had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. First Brands had a little bit of everything under its umbrella, from Fram oil filters and Trico wiper blades to Draw-Tite trailer hitches and Autolite spark plugs. First Brands owned so many different names across several car part categories that if you’ve purchased a third-party part for your car at all, chances are you have a First Brands product on your car. Automakers also rely on First Brands to supply parts they do not make themselves.
The implosion of First Brands runs deep, with the company racking up over $10 billion in liabilities. As part of its attempt to keep itself afloat, First Brands put itself and its brands up for sale. According to Automotive News, Ford, General Motors, and other First Brands customers got court approval last week to fund a $48 million cash infusion into First Brands to keep their supply chains running. Unfortunately, even with help from its customers, some brands under the First Brands umbrella aren’t going to make it.
If you’re only just learning about the failure of First Brands, I’ll give you a primer on what happened.
The First Brands Spiral
In 2014, Cleveland-based Crowne Group LLC purchased wiper blade company Trico. Five years later, the company expanded by purchasing Fram. These brands all fell under an umbrella called First Brands. The acquisitions then took off to a mind-boggling degree in 2020, as First Brands scooped up Raybestos-owner Brake Parts Inc., Luberfiner manufacturer Champion Laboratories, and brake parts company Centric, all in 2020. The Centric Parts acquisition also included Centric’s C-TEK, Posi Quiet, and StopTech brands.
First Brands stayed on the gas and acquired Horizon Global in 2023. Horizon was home to nine towing equipment brands, including big names like Tekonsha trailer brake controllers, Draw-Tite trailer hitches, and Reese hitches. By the end of it all, First Brands owned names in practically every part of the supply chain but tires.
First Brands didn’t have the kind of money necessary to buy so many companies in such a short order, so it turned to financing. Then, like a house of cards, it all fell apart, from our report:
Those sort of huge acquisitions require serious cash to close, and most companies don’t have eight or nine figures in the bank earmarked for expansion. Instead, they often rely on outside financing to raise funding, and debt’s modest cost of capital keeps financing cheap. However, if that debt can’t be paid back within a prescribed timeline, that’s when things go really wrong. Earlier this month, cracks really began to show. On Sept. 25, the Financial Times reported that First Brands’ financing vehicle Carnaby Capital Holdings had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas.
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Allegations of financial opacity aren’t good, and it gets worse. The Carnaby Capital Holdings filing claims that this group of special-purpose financing vehicles tied to First Brands holds more than $500 million in assets and more than $1 billion in liabilities. If that’s just a subsidiary, what are things looking like for the crown jewel?
It turns out we didn’t have to wait long to find out how ensnared First Brands Group was in debt. Just a few days after Carnaby Capital Holdings filed for Chapter 11, First Brands did the same. As Reuters reports, “First Brands, which filed for bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas, disclosed assets exceeding $1 billion against more than $10 billion in liabilities.” The outlet reports a total of around $6 billion in debt to be restructured, a sum that’s simply unfathomable to many.
If you thought all of that was bad, things got worse, as First Brands then sued its founder, Patrick James, alleging that he had pilfered at least $700 million from the company’s coffers. From Bloomberg:
Lawyers for the company — now run by restructuring consultants at Alvarez & Marsal — alleged that James borrowed funds on fraudulent terms, only then to “routinely and regularly” divert cash for himself and his family, according to a Southern District of Texas filing dated Nov. 3. More than $700 million was funneled from First Brands directly to James and his affiliated entities from 2018 to 2025, they claimed.
James “secretly pilfered some of the Company’s assets to fund his and his family’s lavish lifestyle. In short, he lined his pockets at the expense of First Brands and its creditors,” according to the document. The plaintiffs drew on data from more than seven million documents, as well as bank records and a collection of devices from employees.
In the 35-page document, lawyers paint a picture of James’ luxuriant spending habits, pointing to a fleet of at least 17 “exotic cars” and a celebrity personal trainer. In some cases, payments to James and his family were made directly from First Brands accounts, including at least $3 million in rent paid over 2019 to 2024 for a New York townhouse and about $500,000 paid to a private chef in 2025.
Thankfully, First Brands remained operating while all of this happened. But there was a clock running. First Brands had only so much time before funds would fully dry up. According to a January 8 report by Automotive News, First Brands claimed that it had $190 million in cash on hand and would run out of money by late that month. In an effort to stay afloat, First Brands offered itself for sale as a whole or in parts.
The Closure Of Major Parts Brands
First Brands warned that if its dive could not be arrested, it would have to shutter some of its brands. Unfortunately, the end of the month came, and First Brands was still in a dire condition as no buyer was found for the many brands that were for sale.
On January 26, First Brands announced the closure of Brake Parts Inc., Cardone, and Autolite. On February 5, Brake Parts Inc. announced that it was shuttering its McHenry, Illinois, facility. 332 employees were laid off that week, and an additional 57 employees were retained to assist in closing down the business. They will be laid off when that process is complete. I live down the street from this facility, and it has been rocking the community as many locals had worked at Brake Parts Inc. for years.
On that same day, First Brands also announced the closure of Centric Parts, which affects Centric-brand parts as well as C-TEK, Posi Quiet, and StopTech parts. Carlson brake hardware, Autolite spark plugs, and Cardone remanufactured parts were also caught up in the whirlwind of closures. Yesterday, Motor1 reported that all of these brands are ceasing operations.
Just a few days later, on January 29, the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, announced charges against former First Brands execs Patrick James and Edward James. According to the press release, the former execs are facing charges of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of wire fraud and bank fraud, in connection with various schemes to defraud lenders regarding the liabilities and financial condition of First Brands.”
The closure of these companies will mark the end of businesses that have been household names for a long time. Raybestos, for example, was founded in 1902 by Arthur H. Raymond and Arthur F. Law in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as the A.H. Raymond Company. In 1906, Raymond and Law were credited for the creation of a woven asbestos brake lining. In 1916, the company would change its name to Raybestos. Parts from the company would aid in both World War efforts, and Raybestos was heavily involved in racing for six decades. Along with brake kits, Raybestos was known for OEM-quality brake parts.
Centric Parts was founded in 2000 by Dino Crescentini, who had previous experience in imported cars and their parts. In 2013, Centric picked up StopTech, a brand that’s been around since 1999. While Centric’s whole deal was to provide OEM-quality parts, StopTech’s business centered on racing, track days, and street performance. StopTech was known for selling big brake kits, aero rotors, calipers, lines, and performance pads. If you do track days, there’s a chance you’ve seen StopTech brakes on someone’s car, if you already don’t run such a kit on your own car already.
The good news is that, reportedly, existing Centric, StopTech, and Raybestos stock will continue to be sold. As of publishing, you can still buy these branded parts at your favorite retailers.
Unfortunately, it’s unclear what’s going to happen once the stock dries up from these companies. As of publishing, the Raybestos website isn’t even online anymore. Thankfully, these companies weren’t the only names operating in these spaces. There are plenty of brands out there to buy brakes and brake parts from.
Still, it’s sad that these once huge names in the car parts world are going away. A bunch of people are losing their jobs, and soon, there will be a little less variety out there on the parts marketplace. I hope the people displaced by the failures of First Brands land on their feet and that this isn’t only the start of a greater fallout from First Brands.
Top graphic image: Raybestos
Consolidation once again proves how great it is for consumers, what a win for everyone.
I just bought some shitty rotors and pads for my beater BMW e36 from Amazon. The company was literally called “Callahan Auto Parts”, just like in the movie Tommy Boy. Even the logo was the same.
Vulture Capatalism at its finest, sick
This is probably exactly what any prospective bidders wanted, the chance to just pick up trademarks disconnected from physical assets like plants and tooling
Another huge loss brought to us late stage capitalism. This company was too big and never should have been allowed to buy all of these brands. Especially if the owner is able to steal $700 million. Seemingly every single industry is dominated by this kind of thing now where that illusion of choice is happening.