Auto Supplier Behr America Expands Detroit Area Headquarters

TROY, Mich., Aug. 5, 2003 -- Behr America, a leading global supplier of automotive engine cooling and air conditioning systems, is expanding its North American headquarters with the addition of a 10,000- square-foot office facility in Troy, Michigan.

The new offices will house human resources, purchasing and accounting activities for the company's North American operations. Located just north of the company's main headquarters building east of I-75 near Big Beaver and Rochester roads, the $1.5-million office center will employ nearly 60 people.

Designed by the architectural firm of Landry-Newman in Birmingham, Mich., the new facility includes state-of-the-art audio-visual-training and video- conferencing equipment. Landry-Newman also designed the company's $34- million, 80,000-square-foot headquarters building, which recently received a "Best of Troy" award for its aesthetic contribution to Troy's "cityscape."

"The expansion of our Detroit-area headquarters and technical center reflects the rapid growth of our business activities in North America," said Hans Lange, president of Behr America. "Behr has made significant investments here to better serve domestic automotive customers such as DaimlerChrysler, General Motors and Ford and expand with international customers."

Lange added that Behr America's $15-million wind tunnel at its Troy headquarters complex is in the equipment installation phase. It will open next year. The wind tunnel will have the ability to test heating-and-cooling systems on all classes of light-, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.

Last year, Behr acquired DaimlerChrysler's\Ohio-based Dayton Thermal Products operations and posted major increases in both sales and market share for its automotive engine-cooling and air-conditioning businesses in North America.

"Behr America calendar-year sales nearly tripled last year, increasing from $230 million in 2001 to $684 million in 2002," Lange said. "Although the Dayton acquisition had a major impact on our year-end results, our North American operations excluding Dayton posted significant gains as well, climbing 16 percent compared with previous-year totals."

Behr America is a leading automotive supplier of engine cooling modules and components, Visco fan assemblies and air conditioning systems. With the addition of a new plant in Ohio in 2002, North American sales for 2002 were $684 million. The company has about 3,000 total employees in production facilities in Troy and Webberville, Michigan; Dayton, Ohio; Charleston, South Carolina; Canton, South Dakota, and Fort Worth, Texas.

Behr America is part of Stuttgart, Germany-based Behr GmbH & Co. KG, its parent company and a systems partner for the international automobile industry. A specialist for automotive air conditioning and engine cooling systems, the Behr Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of original equipment for passenger and commercial vehicles. Group sales in the 2002 business year came to about $3.2 billion (2.8 billion euros). Currently Behr employs more than 16,000 people in 25 worldwide production facilities in Europe, North and South America, South Africa and India. It operates two joint ventures in Japan and is currently expanding its presence in the Chinese market. Additional company information is available on the Internet at www.behrgroup.com .