LEAR CORPORATION
Foam plant investment in the UK / 300 new jobs / On-line this year
Global automotive supplier Lear Corporation (Southfield, Michigan / USA; www.lear.com) is making a multi-million pound investment to create its first UK foam manufacturing facility for vehicle seating. The plant will be sited in Houghton le Spring, Sunderland, adjacent to the factory of Tacle Seating UK, an automotive seating joint venture between Lear and Tachi-S (Akishima, Tokyo / Japan; www.tachi-s.com). The new foam plant is planned to open before the end of 2011 and will create over 300 jobs. Its initial output will be to supply seating to support vehicle production at the nearby Sunderland plant of Nissan (Yokohama / Japan; www.nissan-global.com).
Lear Corporation’s Gideon Jewel, president of seating operations Europe and Africa, thanked Sunderland City Council for its support in the negotiations to bring his company’s investment to the city. He added: “The 300 new jobs are planned in two phases over the next three years, opening opportunities for local people to be part of a world-beating company.”
The announcement of Lear’s investment decision was welcomed, also, by the Nissan senior vice president for manufacturing in Europe, Trevor Mann, who said Nissan had worked with Tacle Seating since the launch of the “Nissan Qashqai”. “We welcome the launch of this new facility,” said Mann, “which will increase the company’s capability in the North East and bring further jobs to our region.”
Tacle Seating UK was formed in 2005 in a GBP 15m (EUR 17.6m) investment. On opening it created 250 jobs and has since built some 150,000 automotive seats. The location of Lear’s new plant, in effect, creates a single site for production of vehicle seating that will radically cut environment and transport costs compared with an out-sourced foam supply.
Lear Corporation engineers and manufactures automotive products in 35 countries and has an annual turnover of USD 12 bn (EUR 9 bn). It specialises in the production of foam-based components that meet strict automotive specifications. These include its environmentally-friendly soybean oil-based flexible “SoyFoam Seating” and the “Dynamic Environmental Comfort System”, a layered design that weighs up to 50% less than other comfort systems and provides a balance between passenger comfort, safety, environmental care and acoustic and economic needs.
Lear Corporation’s Gideon Jewel, president of seating operations Europe and Africa, thanked Sunderland City Council for its support in the negotiations to bring his company’s investment to the city. He added: “The 300 new jobs are planned in two phases over the next three years, opening opportunities for local people to be part of a world-beating company.”
The announcement of Lear’s investment decision was welcomed, also, by the Nissan senior vice president for manufacturing in Europe, Trevor Mann, who said Nissan had worked with Tacle Seating since the launch of the “Nissan Qashqai”. “We welcome the launch of this new facility,” said Mann, “which will increase the company’s capability in the North East and bring further jobs to our region.”
Tacle Seating UK was formed in 2005 in a GBP 15m (EUR 17.6m) investment. On opening it created 250 jobs and has since built some 150,000 automotive seats. The location of Lear’s new plant, in effect, creates a single site for production of vehicle seating that will radically cut environment and transport costs compared with an out-sourced foam supply.
Lear Corporation engineers and manufactures automotive products in 35 countries and has an annual turnover of USD 12 bn (EUR 9 bn). It specialises in the production of foam-based components that meet strict automotive specifications. These include its environmentally-friendly soybean oil-based flexible “SoyFoam Seating” and the “Dynamic Environmental Comfort System”, a layered design that weighs up to 50% less than other comfort systems and provides a balance between passenger comfort, safety, environmental care and acoustic and economic needs.
10.10.2011 Plasteurope.com [220545-0]
Published on 10.10.2011
German version of this article...