O'Neal Says Delphi Profitable in North America

The messy 4-year bankruptcy case drew to a close for Delphi Corp. Oct. 6, ending a sad money-losing chapter for what started out as the Goliath of the automotive supply chain more than a decade ago.

But a new day has dawned, and no one is happier than CEO and President Rodney O'Neal to put the legacy costs, unprofitable contracts, inefficient manufacturing plants and labor discord into the past.

The biggest transformation for the new Delphi, aside from jettisoning commodity products, is a significantly more diverse customer base. Former parent General Motors Co. no longer makes up the vast majority of revenuess.

Today, no single auto maker represents more than 15% of Delphi's estimated $11 billion in annual revenues. And O'Neal says Delphi managed to win a whopping $89 billion in new business globally while in bankruptcy, contracts that will ramp up over the next several years.

“We never lost our way technology-wise,” he tells Ward's of the bankruptcy years. “It's about winning new business, and you win through technology.”

Delphi technologies found a ready audience among many OEMs. “They were as confident as we were that we would come out” of bankruptcy, he says. O'Neal expects Delphi's revenues to grow 40% by 2012.

He describes the supplier's relationship with GM as positive and says he still wants new business with the auto maker, despite the bruising revelation during the bankruptcy that Delphi had thousands of money-losing contracts with GM.

That won't happen again, O'Neal assures. “If you're not doing business that's profitable, then you're not really doing business,” he says.

As a privately held company, Delphi no longer has to share many of its financial results. But O'Neal is eager to reveal this nugget, which he's rarely been able to say during his long career with Delphi.

“North America is profitable,” he says of the supplier's home region, with a vastly reduced manufacturing footprint.