The BRAKE Report’s monthly brand momentum tracker scores 50 active brake aftermarket companies across five categories — Media, Social, Digital, Product, and Editorial. Two new brands debut this month. Explore the full interactive rankings at aftermarket.thebrakereport.com.
Brembo is back on top. After a one-month reign by EBC Brakes, Brembo reclaims #1 at 69 points — a single point ahead of NRS Brakes — on the strength of a genuinely aftermarket month rather than the OE-heavy news cycle that held it back in June.
Brembo’s return is a full-weight story
At Automechanika Frankfurt 2026, Brembo showcased a completed copper-free brake pad range, an expanded Greenance line that now includes brake fluid, and a renewed caliper lineup spanning passenger cars, commercial vehicles, motorcycles, and electrified platforms. Under the Aftermarket Power Rankings’ relevance weighting, that’s full-weight activity — a different shape of month than June’s headline, which centered on the OE-focused Sensify brake-by-wire production milestone and a corporate dividend announcement, both counted at half weight.
NRS Brakes falls just short — and why
NRS Brakes had a legitimately strong month. A new distribution partnership with Mighty Distributing System of America puts NRS Galvanized Brakes into a major North American franchise network, and a galvanized pad line expansion (part numbers NS2381 and NS2442) adds 1.7 million vehicles of coverage. Both are clean, full-weight aftermarket stories on their own.
NRS’s third story of the month — GRIP METAL’s expansion from brake pads into automotive heat shields — doesn’t fit that description. Heat shields aren’t a brake product, so under the methodology it’s capped at half weight and excluded from the Media and Product uplift rather than stacked on top of two genuinely strong stories. The correction is a useful real-time example of the aftermarket-relevance weighting doing its job: rewarding brake-specific momentum, not general company news.
EBC Brakes holds #3 at 66 points — still a steady, credible month, just without June’s headline-grabbing weekly cadence of new-parts releases.
Apec Braking is the Biggest Climber
Apec Braking jumps ▲8 spots to #6 on a 49-part expansion across its Apec Red and Apec Black ranges — pad sets, calipers, cables, and discs covering BMW, Honda, Vauxhall, and Land Rover applications. It’s a clean recovery after May’s record newcomer debut normalized in June, and it reinforces Apec as one of the field’s more consistent pure-aftermarket cadences.
Fremax is One to Watch
Fremax (Frasle Mobility) climbs ▲7 to #18 after winning the Sindirepa-SP brake disc award for the 10th consecutive year — the manufacturer has held the Gold ranking since the award’s inception — as Frasle Mobility marks its 40th anniversary in business. It’s a genuine market-recognition story in a key growth region, and Fremax’s first BRAKE Report feature of the window adds to the case.
Two Biggest Fallers, one shared story
ATE (AUMOVIO) and Dynamic Friction Company (DFC) both fell an identical ▼5 spots this month — ATE to #15, DFC to #14 — for the same underlying reason: no comparable new headline surfaced once recent coverage aged out of the 30-day window. Neither drop reflects a change in brand strength; both are read as quiet months for otherwise solid companies. Delphi Technologies also gave back ground, ▼4 to #8, as May’s outsized 191-part single release exited the scoring window — the single-event inflation rule working as intended.
Elsewhere in the field
- Akebono (▲3) expanded EURO and Severe Duty pad coverage by six part numbers, reaching 8.6 million additional vehicles.
- Wagner (DRiV) (▲1) benefited from DRiV completing its Abex air disc brake caliper system for heavy-duty trucks.
- PowerStop (▲4) picked up real trade press attention for its PowerShield rotor line after a quiet stretch.
- Disc Brakes Australia (▲3) launched a rear brake upgrade kit for the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 Series, completing a front-and-rear package.
Two new entries — and a methodology note on how they’re scored
The roster grows to 50 active companies this month with the addition of Raybestos (Friction One) and Centric Parts (MPA), both following separate acquisitions out of First Brands Group’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy wind-down:
- Friction One acquired the Raybestos brand on June 29, gaining its formulations, engineering specifications, application data, and catalog resources. Friction One says the first Raybestos products under its ownership won’t reach distribution until Q4 2026. Raybestos joins the roster as Raybestos (Friction One), listed alongside Friction One’s existing brand, Magma Brakes.
- Motorcar Parts of America (MPA) acquired the Centric Parts family of brake brands on June 30 — Centric Parts, Posi Quiet, StopTech, C-TEK, and GCX — through a court-supervised Section 363 sale. The deal covers intellectual property and catalogs only; no operational assets were assumed, and no relaunch timeline has been announced. It joins the roster as Centric Parts (MPA), alongside MPA’s existing brand, Quality-Built.
Both brands debut at the bottom of the table. The acquisitions are real, credited news — but neither has independent product, digital, or social activity under its new ownership yet, so the rest of each score stays close to zero. Their sister brands under the same parent companies — Magma Brakes (Friction One) and Quality-Built (MPA) — hold at their standard corporate-halo levels this month rather than receiving additional credit for their siblings’ acquisition news. Crediting the same story twice, once to each entry, would double-count it; the Aftermarket Power Rankings’ scoring integrity depends on not doing that.
Both new entries carry a clear trigger for reassessment: Raybestos (Friction One) once Friction One’s Q4 2026 shipments actually land, and Centric Parts (MPA) whenever MPA announces a relaunch or first new SKUs under those names.
About the Aftermarket Power Rankings™
The Aftermarket Power Rankings™ score active brake aftermarket companies monthly across five categories — Media, Social, Digital, Product, and Editorial — each worth up to 20 points, for a 100-point maximum. Media and Product scores are weighted by aftermarket relevance: aftermarket SKU launches, catalog expansions, distribution deals, and workshop programs count at full weight, while motorsport, OE-only launches, corporate financial news, and adjacent product categories count at half weight; recalls and lawsuits are excluded entirely. Corporate halos give subsidiary brands partial, weighted credit for parent-company activity. Industry Partner and Sponsor designations are disclosed for transparency and carry zero scoring weight. Full methodology is available on the live rankings app.
Full standings, category breakdowns, and a rolling 12-month archive are available now at aftermarket.thebrakereport.com.
Subscribe to The BRAKE Report. Get the Handbook free.
