French auto supplier Faurecia is expanding its manufacturing in Fraser, thanks in part to building the interior modules for the 2013 Cadillac ATS.
The company recently opened a second plant in the Macomb County city and hired 106 people.
In addition to that new 160,000-square-foot production facility on Masonic that also makes instrument panels and center console components for the Ford Focus, Faurecia has a plant less than a mile away on 14 Mile that employs 750 people.
Faurecia marked the opening of its new plant in Fraser Thursday with a flag-raising ceremony and short speech by Gov. Rick Snyder.
“Michigan is the comeback state of the United States today. … All of you are role models for what we’re trying to do,” Snyder said, alluding to the 800 jobs the company had added so far this year.
He was presented with a company T-shirt celebrating the new factory — the same one worn by dozens of the plant workers attending the ceremony and barbecue lunch.
Faurecia North America President Mike Heneka said the company was doing so well at its other Fraser site on 14 Mile that it “had to add an additional room to this house.”
In May, Faurecia announced it was buying Ford’s Saline interior components operation.
Faurecia — which is the eighth-largest auto supplier in North America and the biggest interior supplier — employs 84,000 people in 33 countries, including 3,400 employees in Michigan, according to the company. It posted total sales of $22.5 billion in 2011.
Among the company’s new employees at the Masonic plant is Tina Miller, 51, of Detroit, who most recently was a MotorCity Casino dealer.
“I wanted to try something different,” said this first-time autoworker, whose mother and three sisters all work for the Detroit Three. “We’re going to … become automotive Detroit again. We fell down but we’re coming back strong.”
By: Zlati Meyer, Detroit Free Press
