The Original Gabriel Ride Control LLC, a manufacturer and supplier of heavy-duty (HD) Fleetline and GasSLX, has expanded its product and service offerings significantly since it began distributing directly to HD customers one year ago. The company has added 44 new truck, trailer and bus SKU’s and 116 new competitive interchanges to its coverage. All are listed in the newly available Gabriel 2014 catalog, which has been increased by 762 lines, the company reported.

Gabriel’s Fleetline and GasSLX product line covers more than 3,000 OE part numbers and more than 2,000 competitors’ aftermarket part numbers.

“We’ve been able to completely replace our previous business while servicing our customers’ needs better by adding marketing, product and training support previously unavailable,” said Gerry Stea, director OE and aftermarket HD sales. “Now that we communicate directly with our customers, we know their requests and are able to act. It’s the key to our success.”

One year ago, the company severed a long-standing single-source distribution relationship and began selling and distributing its product to the HD aftermarket on its own. Gabriel called on its experienced manufacturing and distribution teams (groomed on the company’s light vehicle business) to quickly ramp up the product pipeline, establish HD launch processes and meet the extraordinary demand for its products, the company explained.

Also, the company now offers training to help distributors and/or their customer base understand the benefits of Gabriel products, maintenance parameters and other common issues. The company has developed a training presentation as well as a number of hand-out materials to provide in training sessions.