Eberspaecher North America, Inc. Breaks Ground On New Exhaust Manufacturing Facility

BRIGHTON, Mich., Aug. 26 -- Eberspaecher North America, Inc. (ENA), a Tier 1 automotive exhaust system supplier, today announced that construction is underway on Phase 1 of a 38,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Brighton -- the company's first plant in North America.

Located on a 10 acre site in the Paramount Industrial Park, the new facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2002 and producing exhaust systems and components for automotive OEM customers by first quarter 2004. In anticipation of increased customer demand, a city-approved Phase 2 expansion plan will allow for an additional 20,000 square feet of manufacturing space in subsequent months.

"We are pleased to have secured such a desirable, centrally located site for our new facility," said Werner Mantay, president, ENA. "With the selection of this site for our new, state-of-the-art plant, we look forward to continuing our business strategy for growth."

The new facility is anticipated to create approximately 40 new jobs within the first two years.

The City of Brighton, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and a local developer -- Corrigan Development -- partnered to finance and build a more than $1 million new infrastructure to support the project. The partnership includes a $420,000 Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) from the State of Michigan to the City of Brighton that is being used to finance 75 percent of the combined costs for the infrastructure development.

"We, at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, look forward to continuing our partnership with Eberspaecher as the company grows in Brighton," said Doug Rothwell, president & CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. "This automotive supplier's commitment to expand in Michigan reaffirms our state's leadership position as the automotive capital of the world."

As part of this total economic development project, the City has issued approximately $500,000 of Local Development Finance Authority bonds to pay the combination of a 25 percent match for the CDBG grant and to finance the recently completed Orndorf Drive East Extension -- establishing a new connection of Orndorf Drive from Grand River Avenue to Karl Greimel Way.

"The ENA facility will be the first of several potential high quality light industrial businesses to be located in the new Paramount Industrial Park," said Dana Foster, Brighton City Manager. "We are extremely excited and pleased about ENA's decision to locate and build this significant facility in the City of Brighton. The ENA development and related infrastructure is a result of a very positive partnership between the company, the City of Brighton, State of Michigan and Corrigan Development. The City of Brighton is satisfied with the outcome of this partnership and looks forward to additional combined private and public sector affiliations."

Opened in July 2000, Eberspaecher North America, Inc. (ENA), a U.S. subsidiary of Eberspaecher GmbH, the largest independently owned engineering firm specializing in automotive exhaust systems, provides engineering design, simulation, prototype, manufacturing and exhaust systems testing services for its North American OEM customers. Eberspaecher GmbH, which has approximately 4,600 employees in 12 countries, has more than 30 employees at its new North American headquarters.