Delphi poised for success, CEO says

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Delphi Holdings LLP president and CEO Rodney O'Neal says the Troy-based auto supplier, fresh from a four-year stay in bankruptcy, is well positioned to succeed as a smaller, leaner company.

In an interview Thursday, O'Neal said the company booked $85 billion to $90 billion in new business during its restructuring.

But O'Neal said Delphi will likely have to shrink further, in part due to the smaller markets its company serves.

"The task ahead is how to grow this company and get it into the right fighting weight for the realities of the market," O'Neal said. The issues Delphi faces are no different than those confronting other struggling industries.

Delphi has said it expects to have about 5,500 U.S. employees by year's end, when it will operate just three U.S. factories, compared to 29 in 2005. When the company declared bankruptcy, it had about 50,000 U.S. employees.

Some of the losses at Delphi Holdings come from the sale of some of its businesses. It shed 2,900 U.S. employees at its steering business, which was sold to General Motors Co., and an unspecified number of workers at four other plants it sold to GM.

Delphi laid off 150 salaried employees this summer, The Detroit News reported last month. The company also has taken steps to cut costs by eliminating employee car allowances, and shrinking benefits.

O'Neal isn't saying how long its lenders might own Delphi, or if they plan an initial public offering for Delphi.

"All of that will take care of itself," he said.

Troy-based Delphi, which once was the world's largest auto supplier and part of GM until 1999, is focused on electronics and safety; powertrain; thermal, electrical and electronic systems; automaker service; and the independent aftermarket.

Delphi has attracted new customers and reduced its reliance on GM, its largest customer.

By next year, GM will account for 15 percent of Delphi's global revenue, O'Neal said.

O'Neal said he is "pretty energized" and excited about the company's future.

He said the company will appoint a non-executive chairman to replace Robert S. "Steve" Miller, the former Delphi CEO who stepped down this week as executive chairman after more than four years with Delphi.

Miller told WJR's Paul W. Smith this week that it was "a great relief to have it finally over. Delphi can now get back to business doing what it does best -- that is supplying the auto industry."

"We wish we could have ended up in a better place, but we did what we had to to continue the operation," he said.

dshepardson@detnews.com (202) 662-8735