Memphis firm brings aboard ex-walmart e-commerce pro
Here's a little company that hardly makes a ripple in Memphis but is worth talking about.
That's because it's looking for growth beyond the COVID-19 pandemic in a notable way.
The firm, Highline Warren, ranks as a market leader in private-label engine oil, windshield wiper fluid under the Rain-x brand and other vehicle maintenance products. A customer: the Memphis-based Autozone retail chain.
Just the other day, Highline, which employs about 1,200 workers in 27 plants throughout the nation, announced it recruited a star name from the retailing sector.
He's John Fleming, a former Walmart e-commerce expert and recent interim chief executive of apparel and accessories retailer rue21.
Fleming will serve as senior adviser at the Memphis firm. His role: provide insight on e-commerce initiatives.
He steps in at a time of change at Highline, which was recently bought by one of Chicago's biggest investors.
Highline goes back to the old DYK Automotive, a Germantown-based supplier bought in 2008 by Dobbs Management Service, the investment arm of Memphis' wealthy Dobbs family, who turned a single Ford dealership on Madison into the country's third-largest chain of auto dealerships. Autonation bought the chain in 1998 for $200 million.
Dobbs later sold DYK to Houston investor Sterling Group, which also bought Automotive Aftermarket Holdings Corp. from Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, then combined the firms under the name Highline Aftermarket. Sterling four years ago committed the 148-employee head office to Memphis near the main distribution center east of Memphis International Airport at 4500 Malone Road.
Last October, Sterling sold Highline Aftermarket to Pritzker Private Capital, a Chicago investment arm for members of the Pritzker family, who made a fortune in the Hyatt hotel chain and the Marmon industrial conglomerate tracing to early Cadillac rival Marmon. The Pritzkers sold the conglomerate to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.
Continuing as chief executive at Highline under Pritzker Capital is Darcy Curran, who was recruited by Sterling in 2016 from Canadian industrial giant Ferguson PLC. In November, Curran folded Warren Distribution, a Pritzkerowned maker of engine cleaner Gumout and other vehicle maintenance products, into Highline Aftermarket. Renamed Highline Warren, the firm in January bought Blue Devil Products of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, a maker of fuel additives and anti-leak fluids.
Over the years, neither DYK nor Highline made much news in Memphis. But the company quietly has expanded over the last decade and continued to do so even amid the pandemic.
Bringing aboard e-commerce pro Fleming, who once was Walmart's chief marketing officer, signals Pritzker likely means to grow the business even more.
In a statement announcing Fleming's appointment, Pritzker Capital operating partner Tom Leverton, who earlier in his career guided the national expansion of Memphis-based Fedex Office, said as much:
“As business builders, we are committed to supporting Highline Warren with the resources and talent necessary to provide the best products and service to our customers across North America,” Leverton says. “John is a respected retail executive with extensive ecommerce experience and we are fortunate to have him as a partner to help continue to grow Highline Warren.”
Ted Evanoff, business columnist of The Commercial Appeal, can be reached at evanoff@commercialappeal.com and (901) 529-2292.