Success story: Faurecia.The Faurecia project marked another important success for the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership. The French tier-one supplier of automotive seats was looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a location for their new plant that would supply General Motors Corp.'s Epsilon program (Chevrolet Malibu The Chevrolet Malibu (named after Malibu, California) is a mid-size car produced in the United States by General Motors. It is marketed in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Israel. ) in Lake Orion. Southeast Michigan Southeast Michigan, also called Southeastern Michigan, is a region in the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan that is home to a majority of the state's businesses and industries, and is home to slightly over half the state's population. and Ontario were on the short list of possible locations. Faurecia's decision to locate in Auburn Hills will result in a significant investment to our region--a 70,000-square-foot facility, 205 jobs and $13 million. This project actually originated from another Partnership project involving a Spanish tier-two supplier. The company, Grupo Copo, supplies seat pads (polyurethane foams) to Faurecia. It approached the Partnership in December 2001 for help with finding a facility and other needs relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc establishing a company and immigration immigration, entrance of a person (an alien) into a new country for the purpose of establishing permanent residence. Motives for immigration, like those for migration generally, are often economic, although religious or political factors may be very important. requirements. The Partnership visited Grupo Copo at its headquarters in Vigo, Spain, in March 2002, where it learned of Faurecia's expansion plans (it has operations in Farmington Hills Far·ming·ton Hills A city of southeast Michigan, an industrial suburb of Detroit. Population: 81,400. and Troy). Grupo Copo established a 10-person, 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Wixom and plans to expand in about three years. Another Spanish company, Unitexta, will be locating in the Grupo Copo facility to supply them with seat cloth sewing capabilities. The Partnership has also been working with Unitexta on their investment needs, which initially will create two jobs. French connection John Carroll John Carroll may be:
A French American or Franco-American is a citizen of the United States of America or a permanent resident of the United States of America of French descent and heritage. About 13 million U.S. Chamber of Commerce along with Jean Michel Jean Michel (died 1501) was a French dramatic poet of the fifteenth century known for revising and enlarging "the Mystery of the Passion" composed by Arnoul Gréban. There are three Michels mentioned in connection with this work. Valin, president of Faurecia USA in Farmington Hills. Carroll arranged for a meeting with Valin in April 2002, which led to meetings with the project leaders at Faurecia in Troy in May and June of that year. The project details evolved during this period so that in July 2002 the specific requirements became clear. Faurecia had been waiting to get the final details from GM, which was still negotiating with the unions over the location of the Epsilon program, previously earmarked for the Lansing area. Since this was a just-in-time supply project, Faurecia needed to locate near the GM plant. Its first consideration was to manufacture the seats in Forest, Ontario Forest, Ontario can mean the following places:
Cost factors The main consideration for this arrangement revolved around the cost differences (land, wages, etc.) between Ontario and Michigan. These were significant, even with the transportation costs from Forest to Lake Orion. The only hope for offsetting these costs involved the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) incentives, which are awarded to companies that are considering an out-of-state location with a minimum job creation threshold of 150 employees (or 75 for expansion projects). Faurecia's investment easily met both thresholds and serves as a classic case for the purpose and benefits of MEGA. The Partnership arranged for a joint meeting between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC MEDC Michigan Economic Development Corporation MEDC More Economically Developed Country MEDC Maharashtra Economic Development Council (India) MEDC Mobile & Embedded Developers Conference (Microsoft) ), Oakland County and Faurecia in August 2002. MEGA was awarded in December 2002, and Auburn Hills sealed the deal by awarding a local tax abatement, a local participation requirement for MEGA, in early January 2003. The plant is scheduled to become operational in July 2004. The Partnership will continue to work with all three companies to find solutions for their needs as they develop over the next several years. Grupo Copo, in particular, has expressed a need for prototyping and mould-making services once the company expands its current operation. This will bring business opportunities to companies in our region. RELATED ARTICLE: Company: Faurecia Headquarters: France Product: Automotive seats Issue: Expanding to Southeast Michigan or Ontario Outcome: Building a 70,000-square-foot facility in Auburn Hills Dean Johnson, J.D., is senior director of global business development for the Detroit Regional Economic Partnership. He can be reached at (313) 596-0404 or by e-mail at: djohnson@detroitchamber.com. |
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