Motion Industries, Inc. is an American distributor of industrial parts headquartered in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

. Since 1972, it has been a

wholly owned subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company or daughter company is a company (law), company owned or controlled by another company, which is called the parent company or holding company. Two or more subsidiaries that either belong to the same parent company ...

Genuine Parts Company Genuine Parts Company (GPC) is an American service organization engaged in the distribution of automotive replacement parts, industrial replacement parts, office products and electrical/electronic materials. GPC serves numerous customers from mor ...

History

Motion Industries began as Owen Richards Co., an industrial supply company, which Caldwell Marks and William Spencer III purchased in 1946 in Birmingham. They changed the name to Motion Industries, according to the founders, "because everything we do moves – we’re in the bearing and transmission business." Marks and Spencer merged Motion Industries with

in 1972. Motion Industries now forms the Industrial Parts Group of Genuine Parts. According to Marks, Motion Industries was one of the first industrial distribution companies to establish a central

distribution center A distribution center for a set of products is a warehouse or other specialized building, often with refrigeration or air conditioning, which is stocked with products (goods) to be redistributed to retailers, to wholesalers, or directly to con ...

and set-up an electronic parts

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

. In January 2021, Motion Industries announced an official rebrand as Motion. The company announced that "the move to rebrand is intended to solidify the company’s structure and advance its position in the marketplace." The rebranding also coincided with Motion’s 75th anniversary.

Operations

Motion Industries Branch Office Livonia Michigan

Motion Industries is an industrial parts distributor for products including bearings,

mechanical power transmission Propulsion transmission is the mode of transmitting and controlling propulsion power of a machine. The term ''transmission'' properly refers to the whole drivetrain, including clutch, gearbox, prop shaft (for rear-wheel drive vehicles), differ ...

, electrical and industrial

automation Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...

, conveyor belting, hydraulic and pneumatics, process pumps, hydraulic and industrial hose and industrial/safety supplies. It also provides fabrication and repair services. As of 2017, Motion Industries had annual sales of $4.96 billion and 300,000 customers. Its customers cross numerous industries including: food and beverage,

pulp and paper The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. Manufacturing process The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web an ...

, iron and steel,

chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...

, mining,

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

, automotive, wood and lumber, and

pharmaceuticals A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and rel ...

. At $4.96 billion in sales, Motion Industries placed fourth on ''Industrial Distribution's'' 2018 "Big 50" list of industrial distributors. It was also recognized as "Distributor of the Year" by 3M in 2014.

Facilities

There are more than 500 Motion Industries offices located throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

through its Motion Canada subsidiary. The company operates in Mexico through its Motion Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V. division.

Acquisitions

In the late 1990s, Motion Industries acquired Illinois Bearing Co. in

Mattoon, Illinois Mattoon ( ) is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 16,870 as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Lake Land College and has close ties with its neighbor, Charleston. Both are principal cities of the Charleston� ...

. On October 26, 2013 Motion Industries acquired AST Bearings. In 2015 the company acquired Miller Bearings, an

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

-based industrial parts distributor. On February 14th, 2019 Motion Industries acquired Axis New England and Axis New York (Axis), an automation and robotics company based in Danvers, Mass.

Legal

In 2012 Donald G. Maynor II, an employee, sued Motion Industries for

age discrimination Ageism, also spelled agism, is discrimination against individuals or groups on the basis of their age. The term was coined in 1969 by Robert Neil Butler to describe discrimination against seniors, and patterned on sexism and racism. Butler def ...

, alleging that the company fired him due to his age in violation of the West Virginia Human Rights Act. In 2015 Motion Industries sued Superior Derrick Services for $1 million due to non-payment of a portion of a contract for parts delivered between 2011 and 2014.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Companies based in Birmingham, Alabama Business services companies established in 1946 1946 establishments in Alabama