What AP Emissions Technologies makes

AP Emissions Technologies is a vertically integrated manufacturer of aftermarket exhaust and emissions-control products for cars and light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks. Its core lines are catalytic converters, mufflers, exhaust and tail pipe, steel tubing, and diesel emissions hardware, sold to the professional repair trade and distribution partners under the AP, Catco, Eastern Catalytic, Aristo, DuraFit, ANSA, and Cherry Bomb brands. The company reports more than 15,000 active SKUs across vehicle make, model, and engine, selling to automotive aftermarket buyers rather than to a vehicle OEM.

Catalytic converters are the anchor. AP builds them from stainless steel with premium-grade ceramic substrates, and its Aristo unit coats catalysts with proprietary platinum-group-metal washcoat chemistry in-house. The company ships both EPA-compliant and CARB-certified direct-fit and universal converters, plus manifold converters through Eastern Catalytic and diesel particulate filters (DPF) and diesel oxidation catalysts (DOC) under the DuraFit brand. On the exhaust side, AP runs a high-speed tube mill that turns coils of aluminized and stainless steel into electrically seam-welded tubing from 1.50 to 3.00 inches in diameter, then forms it with mandrel and compression bending up to 5.00 inches. Muffler cross-sections run from 4-inch round to 8.5-by-11.5-inch oval. Sheet-steel blanking, coil slitting, stamping, welding, and assembly happen across the same footprint.

The company describes itself as vertically integrated from source through ship, controlling the process from the smallest stamped component to the finished assembly, with in-house design engineering that pairs 3-D modeling and rapid prototyping with CNC pipe benders and coordinate-measuring machines. That integration is the point of difference AP emphasizes for an aftermarket buyer weighing tooling and lead-time tradeoffs against imported finished units, and it shapes the company's nearshoring posture as it balances Goldsboro production against overseas component sourcing.

Ownership and history

AP traces its roots to 1927, when John Goerlich acquired patent rights to the Taylor muffler and founded the Associated Parts and Goerlich distribution companies. The business grew through the mid-century muffler and exhaust trade, opened its Goldsboro, North Carolina factory in 1974, and added a distribution center in 1995. It expanded by acquisition over the following decades, adding CATCO and the Aristo catalyst business (1990), ANSA (2011), Maremont (2013), Eastern Catalytic (2015), and the DuraFit diesel brand (2017).

Ownership changed hands several times. The Proimos family's Aristo bought the North American aftermarket division from APPI in 1998, and APACE Holdings, led by Vange Proimos, reacquired AP Emissions in 2020. In 2023, Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, acquired AP Emissions Technologies. Marmon comprises 10 groups and more than 120 autonomous businesses with roughly $12 billion in annual revenue and 30,000-plus team members, and AP operates under its own management within that sector structure. Day-to-day leadership per the company's own materials: Rich Biel, President; Gary Nix, Executive VP of Product and Design Engineering; Steven Nuneviller, Executive VP of Finance and Accounting; and Jayme Farina, Executive VP of Commercial.

Manufacturing footprint

AP operates from four principal sites. The Goldsboro, NC headquarters is a 700,000-square-foot campus, of which 425,000 square feet is manufacturing and 275,000 is distribution and office space; it houses sheet-steel blanking, coil slitting, the tube mill, bending, cutting, stamping, welding, and assembly for mufflers, pipe, tubing, and EPA- and CARB-compliant converters. Two adjoining plants in Hobart, Indiana carry the CATCO and Aristo operations: CATCO (100,000 square feet, established 1990 and expanded 1999) focuses on DPF, DOC, and compliant converters, and Aristo (50,000 square feet) handles catalyst coating with the company's PGM washcoat technology. Eastern Catalytic's 118,000-square-foot Pennsylvania plant, established in 1979, specializes in manifold-converter expertise and compliant converters through bending, cutting, stamping, welding, assembly, and inspection.

Certifications and quality

AP's published quality posture rests on regulatory product certifications rather than a named ISO or IATF certificate. The company ships EPA-compliant catalytic converters and CARB-certified converter lines, with new EPA SKUs added through 2026 and a CARB-certified line unveiled in 2024, and it describes a formal quality management system built on advanced automation, robotics, computer-controlled monitoring, and statistical process controls. AP states that its factories and suppliers are electronically connected for high-speed transmission of production and engineering data. No ISO 9001 or IATF 16949 certificate is posted on the company's own pages, so none is claimed here; the EPA and CARB certifications are the current, verifiable quality signals for its product category.

Known customers

AP sells into the automotive aftermarket through the professional repair trade, warehouse distributors, and retail channels rather than to named vehicle OEMs, so a documented customer roster is limited by the nature of the business.

Beyond the aftermarket channel, AP's customs record reflects component and finished-unit sourcing rather than customer relationships; those facts describe its suppliers, not its buyers (see Sourcing evidence).

Sourcing evidence

AP's import record, drawn from US customs bills of lading filed under the legacy importer name AP Exhaust Technologies, runs to 907 US sea shipments from January 2015 through June 2026, at an average of 2.12 TEU per shipment. The product mix is finished and near-finished exhaust hardware, exhaust and flexible pipe, mufflers, tailpipes, flanges, converters, and gaskets, consistent with a full-line aftermarket manufacturer that supplements its domestic Goldsboro production with imported components and units. Seven named foreign suppliers appear on the public record:

Seven shown of the named suppliers on record. By origin, China accounts for 577 shipments, the United Kingdom 222, and Italy 79, with smaller volumes from India, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands, and Vietnam, roughly a two-thirds Asia and one-third Europe split. Loading ports are led by Ningbo and Yantian; unloading concentrates at Wilmington, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia, the natural gateways for the Goldsboro plant. The most recent shipment, on June 26, 2026, was a UK transatlantic lane from Klarius Products.

Coverage caveats: these are US ocean-freight records only. Air, truck, and rail movements do not appear; some records name freight intermediaries rather than manufacturers; product categories come from declared manifest codes, which are noisy; and shipping-cost data covers only about 41 percent of shipments, so the cumulative spend figure is an order-of-magnitude estimate. Absence of a record is not evidence of absence.

Frequently asked questions

What does AP Emissions Technologies make?

AP Emissions Technologies manufactures aftermarket exhaust and emissions-control products: catalytic converters, mufflers, exhaust and tail pipe, steel tubing, and diesel particulate filters and oxidation catalysts. It sells more than 15,000 active SKUs under the AP, Catco, Eastern Catalytic, Aristo, DuraFit, ANSA, and Cherry Bomb brands to the professional automotive repair trade.

Who owns AP Emissions Technologies?

AP Emissions Technologies has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Marmon Holdings, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company, since 2023. AP was founded in 1927, and prior ownership ran through the Proimos family's Aristo (1998) and APACE Holdings (2020). AP operates under its own management from Goldsboro, North Carolina within Marmon's sector structure.

Where is AP Emissions Technologies located?

AP Emissions Technologies is headquartered in Goldsboro, North Carolina, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, on a 700,000-square-foot campus. It also runs the CATCO and Aristo plants in Hobart, Indiana and an Eastern Catalytic plant in Pennsylvania.

How many employees does AP Emissions Technologies have?

AP Emissions Technologies employs an estimated 500 to 1,000 people, consistent with its 700,000-square-foot Goldsboro campus and three additional manufacturing plants. The company does not publish an exact headcount; it announced 96 new jobs in Wayne County, North Carolina in 2021.

What certifications does AP Emissions Technologies hold?

AP Emissions Technologies ships EPA-compliant and CARB-certified catalytic converter lines, with new certified SKUs released in 2024 through 2026, and describes a formal quality management system built on automation, robotics, and statistical process controls. No ISO 9001 or IATF 16949 certificate is published on its own site.

Who are AP Emissions Technologies' customers?

AP Emissions Technologies sells into the automotive aftermarket through the professional repair trade, warehouse distributors, and retail channels rather than to named vehicle manufacturers. Its customs record reflects supplier relationships for imported exhaust components, not a named customer list.

Last verified September 27, 2026. Is this your company? Request a correction.