KANSAS CITY—The expansion and renovation of this metro area's giant Ford and GM plants has set off a corresponding boom among auto suppliers here. And this week, the Spanish automotive supplier Grupo Antolin just became the latest foreign supplier to open a facility.
As reported last November in GlobeSt.com, the company will hire 118 workers over the next two years to staff the $18 million, 148,000 square-foot facility. It will house high-tech manufacturing equipment and produce customized headliners for Ford's new Missouri-made Transit van. Grupo Antolin officials project that by 2016, all vehicles manufactured in Kansas City will feature headliners produced by this facility.
“For more than 20 years, the US automotive sector has been important for our organization,” said Ernesto Antolin, vice chairman of Grupo Antolin. “And the opening of our new factory in Missouri is another step of our plan to expand in this market. Missouri has all the factors in becoming a leading state for the automotive industry in this country. We look forward to strengthening our presence in the state.”
In January 2013, GM announced that it would spend $600 million to upgrade its Fairfax plant. A few months later, Ford announced that it would add 2,000 workers to its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo to meet consumer demand for the Ford F-150 and produce the new Transit.
“All of the stars have aligned for Kansas City,” Erik Murray of Lee & Associates told GlobeSt.com. Murray and Nathan Anderson, managing principal, recently helped Martinrea International, one of the largest global Tier 1 auto-parts suppliers, negotiate a long-term, build-to-suit lease for a 275,560-square-foot building in suburban Riverside.
Grupo Antolin now has over 100 manufacturing plants and 22 offices in 25 countries, including nine facilities in the US. The company designs, manufactures, and supplies automotive overhead systems, interior trim and door functions, among other components for major auto manufacturers around the world, including Ford and GM.
Grupo Antolin joins Martinrea and other suppliers such as Janesville Acoustics, Yanfeng USA Automotive Trim Systems and Adrian Steel in announcing plans to invest and expand in the region over the past year.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
