Ending the Bendix alliance and producing in America through the GM joint venture, Ambrake (1986)

The partner in the gamble became the biggest customer

The character of this decision shows less in its stated aim — entering the US market — than in the fact that ending the alliance came first. Failing to get into America would not have disturbed the business in the near term; continuing the technical tie-up meant the business could be shaken at the convenience of the partner. To get away from that uncertain counterparty, Akebono chose a larger one, GM. Negotiating without telling its own largest shareholder, and deliberately tabling terms that could not be accepted so as to stage a breakdown, one can read the intent of a company that had borrowed technology for a quarter of a century and wanted the initiative back.

The partner in the gamble in time became the largest customer: GM accounted for 26% of Akebono’s sales in the year to March 2019 and 19% the year after. And yet the Elizabethtown plant, built for the joint venture, closes in December 2025, leaving the friction-material plant opened at Glasgow in 1994 as the only production site in America. The factory Nobumoto Yasusada called “a big gamble” in 1985 ends its role after nearly forty years of operation.