The market for aftermarket parts from Japan has been declining for well over five years, due in part to decreased demand both at home and abroad and the rising rates of Chinese knock-offs and other inexpensive (and dubiously built) components.
Today, one of the world’s largest performance parts companies, known as Trust in Japan and Greddy here in the States, declared bankruptcy. According to various reports, Trust is approximately $60 million in debt and, after reporting a serious decline in sales since February 2008 and amassing $43 million in loan payments, filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo District Court.
Trust has been around since 1976, employs almost 200 workers and had been dealing in everything from CARB-legal exhausts to turbo systems when Greddy Performance Products was founded in the U.S. in 1994. There are several firms that will step up to fill the need of enthusiasts, assuming that Trust doesn’t try to reorganize, but with the aftermarket industry down overall, we suspect this won’t be the last time we’ll here about a large tuner going under.
i always thought greddy was over priced and a lot of their products are garbage.
ex/ type rs BOV (stopping the type S was a mistake) and their intercooler kit for 2g’s dsm’s with 50 ft of intercooler piping (long route/bad design). Idk never really thought their products were worth the money. it was all about the name.
It’s hard to make money when you have to warranty the same emanage 2-3 times. Lets see if they pull an Apexi and keep doing business.
Someone on another board had a great quote on this. “What will China do when all the companies actually designing parts are gone and they have nobody to copy?”
