Johnson Controls Expands in Alabama

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Houston, Texas). Johnson Controls Incorporated (NYSE:JCI) (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is more than doubling the size of its existing manufacturing plant in Cottondale, Alabama. The plant will be expanded from 153,000 square feet to 350,000 square feet. The $26.3 million project is being handled by Gray Construction (Birmingham, Alabama). Hardy Mechanical (Birmingham, Alabama) is the mechanical contractor, and Amteck (Lexington, Kentucky) is the electrical contractor for the project.

Groundbreaking for the expansion began a month ago. The owner is handling equipment procurement and setting. Contracts for equipment setting have not gone out yet. Equipment setting is scheduled for the Fall of this year. Johnson Controls expects the project to be completed by the end of the year.

Johnson Controls Cottondale manufactures seating and overhead systems for the Mercedes ML 320 and ML 430 SUVs, and also makes door panels, interior quarter panels, as well as other components for Mercedes' Vance, Alabama, plant.

The South in general, and Alabama in particular, has been the fortunate recipient of a number of automotive Tier suppliers attracted by the large OEM assembly plants in the last couple of years. A few of the many suppliers for the Mercedes Vance plant are Ogihara Birmingham (body stampings), Delphi Cottondale (fully-assembled cockpits), South Charleston Stamping & Manufacturing West Virginia (structural steel stampings), and ZF Industries (axles), and a total of 65 North American Tier suppliers. Transmissions and engines for the Mercedes SUVs still come from Mercedes' Graz, Austria, manufacturing facility.