First Brands Group and PGI Northstar LLC, an organization backed by Premium Guard Inc., have agreed to a deal that would see key intellectual property and assets—including FRAM, Autolite, Trico, and a host of other brands—go the PGI Northstar for US$25 million and assumption of some liabilities.

The deal reportedly includes a total 12 brands along with certain liabilities.

The arrangement has still to receive assent from the U.S. bankruptcy court.

PGI says the anticipated deal does not change its core business model as a private label supplier, but does add capabiiities.

“This is a meaningful step forward for PGI,” said Anan Bishara, Founder and CEO of PGI.

“The know-how, patents, and engineering capabilities we are acquiring, particularly in wiper blades, spark plugs, and diesel filtration, significantly strengthen our platform, enabling us to continue developing advanced, reliable, and complete solutions across multiple tiers. This will allow us to better support our customers with differentiated products in highly competitive categories, while accelerating innovation and speed to market.”

The acquisition also supports PGI’s expansion into additional maintenance categories, says the company, including ignition and spark plugs. Combined with PGI’s existing business in filtration, wiper blades, and related maintenance products such as drain plugs, this creates a more complete maintenance-product portfolio, it maintains.

This deal comes not long after First Brands agreed to sell its Walbro fuel systems division to Overdrive Capital LLC for US$50 million. Overdrive is linked to Active Dynamics Group, a Toronto, Ont., based OEM supplier with capabilities in emissions control and thermal management, in automotive, powersports, commercial vehicle and small engines markets. The Carter brand is not inlcuded in the transaction.

That deal as approved by the U.S. bankruptcy court March 13, 2026.

First Brands Group operations filed for Chapter 11 in fall of 2025 following a liquidity crunch and allegations of fraud against it’s CEO and other and other executives. The U.S. Department of Justice has since charged company founder Patrick James and his brother Edward. Both have plead not guilty.