Greenbrier Companies and Watco Companies reached an agreement to discontinue their GBW Railcar Services (GBW) railcar repair joint venture.
Under the agreement, the repair shops and employees at each location will return to management by their previous operators. The assets and employees of 12 shops will return to Greenbrier and 14 shops to Watco. Four mobile shops will be transferred to Watco.
Rick Turner, senior vice president for Greenbrier Rail Services Wheels and Parts, will manage the shops returned to Greenbrier.
The deal enables both Greenbrier and Watco to better capitalize on current trends in North America’s railcar repair market, meeting demand for railcar repair services within their respective business models.
Greenbrier and Watco formed GBW in 2014 by combining their shops into a nationwide network of railcar repair facilities. The venture was intended to address booming demand for tank cars in oil by rail service, including tank car retrofits. “That market never fully materialized,” Greenbrier says.
“One of the main reasons GBW was formed was to provide capacity to service, recertify and retrofit North America’s tank car fleet. For a variety of reasons, tank car services and retrofits never materialized in the volumes anticipated by Watco and Greenbrier at the time we formed GBW. The current arrangement is the best course of action,” Rick Webb, Watco CEO and GBW’s current operations leader said.
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