Unlocking $150M in Aftermarket EBITDA Potential

Superior profitability, trapped in an OE-first structure

In fiscal year 2024, aftermarket delivered a share of profit far out of proportion to its share of revenue. The margin advantage was clear. The organizational model was not built to capture it.

A fragmented structure meant no single point of accountability for aftermarket, challenging cross-functional collaboration, and limited responsiveness to aftermarket customers. Reaching the growth ambition required a step-change in investment, capabilities, and governance.

Setting a clear 2030 ambition

Ducker Carlisle and the supplier set two objectives. The first was to accelerate profitable aftermarket growth, moving aftermarket from a constrained line inside the core business to a deliberate, well-resourced growth engine. The second was to maximize enterprise value ahead of the planned spin-off of a major business unit.

Benchmarking performance against industry leaders

The work started with a benchmark-anchored diagnostic. Drawing on more than 30 years of proprietary aftermarket benchmarks across parts, service, and supply chain, the team quantified performance against industry leaders and identified the gaps that mattered most. Prioritization then concentrated effort on the highest-return opportunities across revenue and profit management, product management, supply chain performance, channel performance, and brand perception.

Designing the future operating model

Standardizing processes was necessary but not sufficient. Processes are one dimension of an operating model, and changing them without adjusting the surrounding structure rarely holds. The team knew a lasting result depended on the organization around the processes.

The key enabler was moving aftermarket to its own profit and loss. A global, independent structure replaced the fragmented model, creating a single point of accountability, giving the business its own decision rights and governance, and shifting resources toward the higher-margin business. This mirrors how leading peers already run aftermarket as an independent organization.

Building the roadmap to value

The roadmap identified more than $150 million in EBITDA potential by 2030, which is $50 million above the original objective. The uplift is driven by prioritized, high-return initiatives across four levers: operational excellence from streamlined processes, availability at a 97.5 percent fill rate, top-line growth from targeted commercial levers, and commercial excellence through pricing discipline and segmentation. A rebuilt brand position and a service-parts-first philosophy reinforce the shift.

With the transformation now in multi-phased implementation, the supplier has both a path to sustainable EBITDA expansion and an established blueprint for a standalone aftermarket operating model ahead of the spin-off.