Ernie Green Industries to Build New Auto Parts Plant for Honda

27 July 1999
Ernie Green Industries to Build New Auto Parts Plant for Honda
     Newly-Formed Marion Industries Creates 120 New Jobs in Marion, Ohio

    MARION, Ohio, July 27 -- A new $18 million auto parts plant
to produce suspension assemblies for Honda of America Manufacturing was
announced today by Ernie Green, president of Ernie Green Industries, Inc.
    The new auto parts production operation has been dubbed Marion Industries,
Inc. and will be located in the Dual Rail Industrial Park in Marion, Ohio.
The facility will supply components for Honda and Acura automobiles, produced
by Honda of America Manufacturing auto plants at East Liberty and Marysville,
Ohio.
    The 144,000-square-foot plant is scheduled to begin production in March
2000.  The plant will employ as many as 120 workers by its second year of
operation.
    "We look forward to continuing our good relationship with Honda of America
Manufacturing," said Ernie Green, president of Marion Industries, Inc. and
founder of parent company Ernie Green Industries in 1981.  "This new Marion
operation will be a welcome addition to our existing operations and will
continue our path of being a world-class producer of automotive parts.  We
also look forward to becoming a supportive part of the Marion, Ohio
community."
    Marion and state officials are equally pleased by the arrival of the new
auto parts plant.
    "We welcome Marion Industries, Inc. and the 120 jobs they bring with them
to our city and hope they will become an active member of our city," said
Marion City Mayor Jack L. Kellogg.  "We are proud of our Dual Rail Industrial
Park and the success it has meant to our community."
    "We are glad to have assisted in bringing these jobs to Ohio and the City
of Marion," added David L. Williamson, regional representative in the
governor's Economic Development Office.
    Florida Production Engineering (FPE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ernie
Green Industries, Inc. has been a supplier of wheel trim to Honda of America
Manufacturing for 10 years.
    FPE supplies interior and exterior molded and painted plastic products to
original equipment automobile manufacturers and tier one customers through its
numerous plants in Florida and Ohio.  FPE's product lines include: wheel trim,
door panels, airbag covers, taillight and headlight housings, instrument panel
components and bezels.
    Within the past decade, Honda has rewarded FPE's efforts by presenting the
company with both the Honda Plant Managers Award and the Honda Quality
Performance Award.
    Sun Manufacturing, an FPE-affiliated company in Williamston, Kentucky,
serves the rubber and vinyl bonding industry with treated and processed metal
components.