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2008-6-13
Vehicle production in North America has been declining sharply for months. As part of the ongoing program to improve productivity within the manufacturing network of Rieter Automotive North America, it was decided to close the manufacturing plant in St. Joseph, Michigan, USA.
Light vehicle production of the Detroit Three car manufacturers Ford, GM and Chrysler in North America dropped some 15% in the first five months and negatively affected sales of Rieter Automotive North America. At the same time Rieter's operations in the USA and Canada have to cope with continued price pressure and much higher raw material and energy prices.
Rieter Automotive therefore has been reducing the number of employees in the USA and Canada since the end of 2007 by some 100 employees to 2480. Due to the further reductions of production capacities already announced by the car manufacturers in the USA, Rieter has decided to close the manufacturing plant in St. Joseph by the end of 2008.
The St. Joseph plant produces aluminum heat shields, trunk and floor systems and employs some 50 people. "Closing facilities are always extremely difficult decisions to make as they affect our excellent workforce. However, we must take all necessary steps to secure Rieter's long-term competitiveness and improve overall efficiency and profitability. We need to ensure optimum utilization of our existing plants and reduce excess capacity," said Richard Derr, Rieter Automotive North America's President and CEO. All those employees involved have been informed.
Rieter has 12 production facilities employing some 2'500 full-time employees in North America. 8 plants are supplying primarily to the Detroit Three and the European producers, 4 of them to the Japanese manufacturers in the USA and in Canada. In 2007 Rieter’s North American operations achieved sales of 665.2 Mio. CHF which corresponds to 28.2% of Rieter Automotive's total sales.
The Rieter Group operates internationally, developing and producing sophisticated systems solutions for the textile and automotive industries. Rieter generated sales of 3 930 million CHF with some 15000 employees worldwide in the 2007 financial year. The Textile Systems Division accounted for 1567 million CHF, the Automotive Systems Division for 2363 million CHF of this total.
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