The new owners of American Seating Co. had to force their way into the 139-year-old bus seat manufacturer over the past year to remedy a quickly deteriorating production schedule that threatened to disrupt the North American transit industry.
Executives with Manitoba-based bus manufacturer NFI Group Inc. painted a dire situation as an unnamed North American supplier, later identified as American Seating, cost NFI millions and prevented the delivery of dozens of its buses, according to earnings call transcripts reviewed by Crain’s Grand Rapids Business.
Indeed, American Seating has been a critical seat supplier for the transit industry, and particularly for NFI and Livermore, Calif.-based Gillig LLC, which took an extraordinary step as competitors to jointly acquire American Seating on Oct. 21…