Tower Automotive Corydon Unit Plans Expansion
12 October 1998
Tower Automotive Corydon Unit Plans Expansion
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Oct. 12 -- Tower Automotive
has announced plans to expand its Corydon, Ind. business unit to fulfill new
contract awards in providing frames for the Ford Explorer sport-utility
vehicle. The expansion will add 140,000 square feet of manufacturing space to
the Corydon facility, which has been in operation since 1990. With a
workforce currently pegged at 375, the expansion will likely add another 40
colleagues when completed.
The additional capacity represents a $70.9 million investment -- $5.5 in
construction costs and $65.4 million for new production equipment, including
automatic robotic welding machines, hydraulic piercing machines and frame
coating lines.
According to business unit leader Bill Corrie, the new addition will be
phased in over a year-and-a-half time period, starting with technical
resources development beginning in January 1999. The new production lines are
expected to be fully operational by the second quarter of the year 2000. The
Corydon unit currently ships finished Explorer frames to Ford assembly plants
in St. Louis, Mo. and Louisville, Ky.
"This expansion will benefit us in several ways," says Corrie. "First, it
will give us the needed capability to be an outstanding partner with our
customers. We can offer them more value that will prove critical in
developing new opportunities in the future. Second, in being the automotive
'frame supplier of choice,' we will give our colleagues increased job security
in a highly competitive industry."
Tower Automotive, Inc. is a global supplier of upper and lower body
structurals, chassis and suspension stampings, assemblies and modules for
passenger cars, sport-utility vehicles and light, medium and heavy trucks.
Major customers include Ford, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Nissan,
Mazda and Fiat. The company maintains its operating headquarters in Grand
Rapids, Mich., and a corporate office in Minneapolis, Minn.