TRW Automotive Opens First Romanian Plant
LIVONIA, Mich., Nov. 5, 2004 -- TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. today announced the opening of its first plant in Romania. The steering wheel manufacturing site has opened in Romania with 250 people in a 23,000 square foot facility.
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Early next year, the business will move into a new, purpose-built 41,000 square foot plant, located in Timisoara, Romania -- nearly doubling the size of the operation to allow for the plans to increase employees from 250 today to around 1,100 by the end of 2005. The initial phase of this project represents an investment of $16 million.
The plant will supply the current TRW Automotive customer base for steering wheels, including DaimlerChrysler, Volkswagen Group, BMW and Toyota across Europe and Renault Dacia locally. The facility also has the capacity to expand into other occupant safety systems product areas such as airbags or seatbelts in the future.
Steve Lunn, executive vice president and chief operating officer, TRW Automotive, said: "We are proud to have established TRW's first presence in Romania to support our European steering wheel customers. This move enables us to continue to provide our outstanding quality products with an improved cost base for this business."
Plant manager, Giuseppe Papparlardo, who also leads TRW's Naples, Italy, steering wheel plant, added "We have been fortunate to establish an excellent labor force. Each employee has been through an extensive three-month training course in areas such as leather wrapping and sewing. This training program will continue as we expand our operations."
About TRW
With 2003 sales of $11.3 billion, TRW Automotive ranks among the world's top 10 automotive suppliers. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, USA, the Company, through its subsidiaries, employs approximately 61,000 people in 22 countries. TRW Automotive products include integrated vehicle control and driver assist systems, braking systems, steering systems, suspension systems, occupant safety systems (seat belts and airbags), electronics, engine components, fastening systems and aftermarket replacement parts and services. All references to "TRW Automotive," "TRW" or the "Company" in this press release refer to TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries, unless otherwise indicated. TRW Automotive news is available on the internet at http://www.trwauto.com/ .
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains statements that are not statements of historical fact, but instead are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements made in this release. Such risks, uncertainties and other important factors which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking statements are set forth in the TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. final prospectus dated as of February 2, 2004 (the "Prospectus") filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4), our Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003 (the "10K") and our Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 26, 2004 and June 25, 2004 and include: our substantial leverage; the highly competitive automotive parts industry and its cyclicality; pricing pressures from our customers; increasing costs for purchased components and raw materials; non- performance by, or by insolvency of, our suppliers; product liability and warranty and recall claims; our dependence on our largest customers; limitations on flexibility in operating our business contained in our debt agreements; increases in interest rates; fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; the possibility that our owners' interests will conflict with ours; work stoppages or other labor issues and other risks and uncertainties set forth under "Risk Factors" in the Prospectus and the 10-K and in our other SEC filings. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements.
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