SALINE ? Automotive Components Holdings has reached a deal that will keep the ACH facility in Saline open for the foreseeable future.
Faurecia will acquire the Saline business, which generates $1.1 billion annual sales [euro 835 million] supplying cockpit modules, instrument panels, door panels and center consoles for 12 vehicle programs assembled at eight Ford plants throughout North America. Terms were not announced.
Faurecia, headquartered in Nanterre, France, is one of the largest international automotive parts manufacturers. ACH was formed in 2005 to restructure and prepare former Visteon automotive components plants for sale or closure. Faurecia will lease the facility from ACH, and purchase the equipment and book of interior trim and components business.
In conjunction with the Saline acquisition, Faurecia will enter into a new joint venture with Rush Group Ltd., one of the Rush Group of companies that together comprise one of the largest Native American and woman-owned businesses in North America. The joint venture, called Detroit Manufacturing Systems (DMS), will do injection molding, assembly and sequencing of interior trim components from a new facility in Detroit. Rush Group will hold the majority of the capital and the management of DMS, while Faurecia ? with 45 percent of the capital ? will bring its technology and manufacturing expertise to the joint-venture. As a result, the Saline plant will focus in the future on core technologies such as injection molding, skin manufacturing and foaming operations with annual revenues of nearly $400 million [euro 300 million].
This deal will have no significant impact on Faurecia’s debt and cash position.
With this acquisition, Ford Motor Company will become Faurecia’s third largest customer. Faurecia will thus reinforce its position as part of Ford’s Aligned Business Framework, which it joined in June 2009. ABF companies enter into long-term relationships with Ford to strengthen collaboration and drive mutual profitability and technology development.
The target date for transitioning the Saline operation is June 1. Operations transitioning to the DMS facility will begin transferring this summer.
“Ann Arbor SPARK joins the City of Saline in support of this agreement,” said Paul Krutko, Ann Arbor SPARK president and CEO. “Keeping a high tech manufacturing facility and its highly skilled workers in the region is a benefit to our economy. We look forward to working with Faurecia as it grows in the Ann Arbor region.”
“We are confident that this path forward affords the plant a much more viable future. We are ready to work with Faurecia to ensure they are a successful part of our community for years to come,” said City of Saline Mayor Gretchen Driskell.
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