---

Budd Will Invest $65 Million More in Tell City, Indiana Facility

17 November 1997

Budd Will Invest $65 Million More in Tell City, Indiana Facility

    TROY, Mich., Nov. 17 -- Just months after The Budd Company
subsidiary, Waupaca Foundry, began full production in its new $60 million
castings plant in Tell City, Indiana, an expansion will take place.  Budd
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Siegfried Buschmann, said today,
"The strong market demand and excellent performance of this plant warrants an
additional $65 million investment, which will be used to produce large ductile
iron castings for the automotive industry."
    Buschmann continued, "The ductile iron castings will be produced on three
of the largest molding machines ever installed in a foundry in North America
for large heavy duty automotive parts.  When operational in 1999, the new
addition will employ approximately 200 people in addition to the 250 already
employed there."
    Gary L. Thoe, Waupaca's President and Chief Executive Officer, said the
new plant will encompass the most successful ideas developed at Waupaca's
other plants located in Wisconsin.  Thoe said that "the new plant will utilize
electronic communications, wherever possible, to eliminate paper usage."
    The original plant sits on a 160-acre site in Perry County, Indiana, and
has 270,000 square feet in Phase I.  Phase II adds another 200,000 square
feet.
    The gray iron portion of the Tell City facility will produce castings for
conventional automotive components, while the new ductile iron facility will
manufacture very large automotive parts, such as fly wheels, with higher
strength requirements.
    Subject to local and state approvals, plant construction could start in
the first quarter of 1998 with a projected plant start-up in 1999.
    James Larson, Waupaca vice president, said, "We will seek the help of
Perry County in our employee recruiting process to assure we obtain the same
high-caliber employees we now have at the Tell City Plant."
    The Budd Company is a leading supplier of automotive components.
Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, it produces components such as doors,
fenders, roofs, hoods, decklids, etc. in sheet metal as well as in sheet
molding composite (SMC), and gray iron and ductile iron castings for 100
current vehicle models.  Budd also makes prototypes, chassis frames and
subframes, cold weather starting and heating products and air bag components
for the automotive industry.
    With approximately 9,000 employees and nearly $2 billion in annual sales,
Budd operates 25 facilities in North America.  In addition, the company has
offices in Stuttgart, Germany, and Tokyo, Japan.  Budd is part of Thyssen Budd
Automotive Company.

SOURCE  The Budd Company