First Brands Group Announces Leadership Transition

Appoints Charles Moore as Interim Chief Executive Officer; Patrick James to resign as Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately

Company Focused on Stabilizing Global Operations to Facilitate Value-Maximizing Sale Process

ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Brands Group, LLC (“First Brands” or the “Company”), a leading global supplier of aftermarket automotive parts, today announced that Charles Moore has been appointed Interim Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Founder and Chief Executive Officer Patrick James, who has resigned from the Company.

Mr. Moore has served as First Brands’ Chief Restructuring Officer since September 2025 and brings more than 30 years of leadership experience in restructuring and performance improvement across the automotive supply chain. He assumes executive leadership as First Brands continues its previously announced chapter 11 cases in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

In his role as Interim CEO, Mr. Moore will work closely with First Brands’ management team and advisors to oversee operational stabilization initiatives and facilitate a court-supervised sale process, while the Special Committee of the Board of Directors investigates the prepetition use of off-balance sheet financing arrangements. There are no other changes to First Brands’ executive leadership team at this time.

“First Brands has a strong foundation of globally recognized brands and a resilient position in the aftermarket automotive industry,” said Moore. “Our immediate priority is to ensure stability and dependability for our employees, customers, and partners. We remain laser-focused on operational execution while we take the necessary steps to conduct an investigation into the past use of various financing instruments and facilitate a sale process designed to deliver the best possible outcome for our stakeholders. We intend to move through this process efficiently, and I look forward to working alongside the First Brands team in this next phase.”

As previously announced, First Brands has secured $1.1 billion in debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) financing, which is providing the necessary capital for the Company to maintain operations, fulfill customer orders, and meet its commitments to its vendors and partners.

About Charles Moore

Charles Moore is an experienced executive with more than 30 years of leadership in operational turnarounds, performance improvement, financial restructuring, and complex sale processes across the automotive and industrial sectors. He has advised more than 75 automotive suppliers in matters such as liquidity management, transaction execution, and stakeholder negotiations and has served in senior roles in multiple chapter 11 restructuring matters. Moore is a Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal and previously held leadership roles at Conway MacKenzie and Horizon Technology Group. He started his career in the Management Solutions & Services practice at Deloitte. Moore holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and an MBA in professional accounting from Michigan State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Turnaround Professional, and is certified in financial forensics.

About First Brands Group

First Brands Group™ is a global automotive parts company that develops, markets and sells premium products through a portfolio of market-leading brands including: Raybestos® complete brake solutions, Centric Parts® replacement brake components, StopTech® performance brakes, FRAM® filtration products, Luber-finer® filtration products, TRICO® wiper blades, ANCO® wiper blades, Michelin® licensed wiper blades, Carter® fuel and water pumps, Autolite® spark plugs, StrongArm® lift supports, Carlson® brake hardware, CARDONE® new and remanufactured replacement parts, and our towing & trailering portfolio composed of REESE®, DRAWTITE®, BULLDOG®, TEKONSHA®, FULTON®, Westfalia® along with Hopkins® universal owned and licensed brands and Philips® licensed aftermarket lighting. The First Brands Group™ portfolio of world-class brands offers best-in-class technology, industry-leading engineering capabilities and superior customer service.