Automotive Brake Manufacturer Under Way with $35 Million Expansion of South Carolina Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Akebono Brake Corporation (Elizabethtown, Kentucky) is currently under way with a $35.6 million expansion at the company's newly acquired plant in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Akebono acquired the plant from Robert Bosch GmbH (Gerlingen, Germany), considered the world's largest supplier of automotive components, when the company purchased Bosch's North American Foundation Brake Division last year. In 2007, Bosch purchased the South Carolina plant and another plant in Knoxville, Tennessee, from PBR International Limited (East Bentleigh, Australia).

Operations remain under way while Akebono finishes the expansion, which involves the relocation of equipment from the Tennessee plant, scheduled for closure this year. Approximately 283 jobs will be created in the next five years at the expanded plant. Last year, approximately 12,276 square feet of office space was added to the West Columbia plant. The work involved the removal of interior walls, as well as the addition of sprinkler systems, air ducts and concrete floors to an unused part of the plant.

Akebono Brake Corporation, which has its North American headquarters in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, is a subsidiary of Akebono Corporation, founded in 1929 in Tokyo, Japan. The company manufactures automotive brakes and brake components. Akebono initially operated all of its North American facilities in Kentucky. The company's first North American plant opened in 1987. Akebono Brake Corporation currently employs approximately 1,500 people in Kentucky, Michigan and South Carolina.

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