Start of construction for fifth production site in North America

London/ Ontario - Coburg, 24 October 2003. The automotive supplier Brose has now begun construction work of the first Canadian production-site to located in London, Ontario, taking another step forward in the group’s growth activities in North America. In the next ten months a factory building where seat adjusters are to be produced will be set up on an area of land totaling 130,000 square meters in the industrial park “Forest City”.

There will be 300 new jobs created at the new Brose location. Some 30 million euro are to be invested in the building and the equipment. The new production site itself will total some 20,000 square meters and is scheduled to start series production in the late summer of 2004.

“The reasons for choosing the location of London included the competitive economic environment as well as the exceptional support we received from the community and the local authorities,“ said Michael Stoschek, President and CEO of the Brose Group, in London last Wednesday.

Mayor of London, Anne Marie DeCicco welcomed the commitment of the Brose Group to the town, numbering about 350,000 inhabitants: “We are very pleased about the new impetus for the economic development of London to be gained from Brose’s decision to move here.”

In addition to two production plants in Mexico as well as new plants in Chicago, Illinois and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, London will be the Brose Group’s fifth production site in North America. The Brose Group currently has a market share of 20 percent in window regulators and 40 percent in door systems in the USA.