German Automotive Tier Suppliers Continue March to Alabama

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Alabama has landed yet another German automotive supplier, this time Eissmann GmbH of Bad Urach, Baden Wuerttemberg (near Stuttgart), which will invest $2.5 million in a plant in Pell City, Saint Clair County, Alabama, in the Pell City Industrial Park, near the corner of Fisher Run and Jack Biddle Drive. This plant, which will create 85 new jobs, will be Eissmann's first venture in the United States.

The Design/Build contract has been awarded to Goodgame Welding Company Incorporated of Pell City, which has awarded the site excavation contract to Golden Construction of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Clearing and site preparation are scheduled to begin around the end of August, with construction to begin shortly thereafter. The plant is expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2006.

Eissmann produces leather automotive interior parts, such as door paneling, instrument panels, arm rests, and gearshift and brake handles, to Delphi Corporation (NYSE:DPH) (Troy, Michigan), which supplies the assembled components to the Alabama assembly plant of Mercedes-Benz USA LLC (Montvale, New Jersey) in Vance.

Eissmann, which was established in 1964, employs about 2000 people, and supplies leather interiors to Porsche, Volkswagen, General Motors, Audi, Daimler Chrysler, BMW, Ford, Opel, Rover, and Jaguar from seven manufacturing plants located in Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, South Africa, Slovak Republic, and China.