BusinessTN

Just one year after automotive plastics manufacturer U.S. Farathane chose Jackson as the site of its first plant outside of Michigan, the Tennessee facility has already exceeded expectations. Certainly not a household name, the privately held company, which has more than 500 employees at multiple Michigan facilities, has been designing and manufacturing plastic components for companies like General Motors for about 30 years. “Their energy level and ability to invest money in new technologies make them well-regarded in automotive circles,” says Bill Bregar, a reporter for Plastics News, a trade publication that presented U.S. Farathane with its Plastic Processor of the Year Award for 2005.

U.S. Farathane specializes in two-shot injection molding, which combines two different materials into a single part with one operation. The technology, Bregar says, eliminates the need for assembly and makes a higher quality part that lasts longer and “won’t cause an annoying squeak in your SUV.” “It’s one of their strong points, and it sets them apart from other companies,” Bregar says.

U.S. Farathane’s southern venture better positions the company to serve the southern plants of automakers that have been aggressively building and expanding in the South throughout the last few decades. And so far, so good. The $15 million, 166,000-square-foot plant, which shipped its first part in July, employs 170 people—about 40 more than the company expected to employ there by the middle of 2007. “Based on prior success with our customers, we’ve been able to take on off-load work from companies going out of business, and we’ve also received some new business that we hadn’t planned on at this point,” says corporate human resources manager Heather Trombetta.

Jackson officials hope the plant’s early success—Bregar reports the company anticipates the new plant will contribute to its $20 million annual sales boost—will attract increased investment. “If you look at a map of automotive producers in Tennessee, Kentucky and Jackson, Miss., we’re in a good location,” says Paul Latture, president and CEO of the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce.

The company also has what Bregar calls a “young, [not yet 40], enthusiastic rising star” in national automotive circles in the driver’s seat. President and CEO Andrew Greenlee joined the company as director of sales and marketing in 1996 and has been leading it since 2001. “The enthusiasm counts for a lot because it’s not easy to make money in the automotive business these days,” Bregar says.

All told, U.S. Farathane’s story is a bright spot among tumultuous headlines broadcasting declining sales and layoffs in the cutthroat automotive industry.