DETROIT – Seat provider Bridgewater Interiors LLC plans to expand capacity at two Michigan plants and raise 400 new jobs after receiving a $2 million state grant.
The Michigan Strategic Fund’s board of directors on Tuesday approved the grant to inspire Detroit-based auto supplier to expand to its state of Ohio.
Bridgewater Interiors plans a 20,000-square-foot extension of its Lansing plant to manufacture seats for Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia and General Motors’ Buick Enclave. The Traverse and enclave are assembled at the GM DELTA Township plant west of Lansing.
The company is making a $16 million investment in amenities and equipment.
Ronald Hall Jr., CEO of Bridgewater Interiors, said Tuesday that the state grant will also help the ongoing operations of its original Detroit plant on West Fort Street.
In the past, the Detroit plant had provided seating to General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck meeting facility, which was inactive for restructured for the production of electric trucks.
“We didn’t need to leave this place,” Hall said of the Detroit plant. “This help will be of great help in consolidating the stability of this site for a long time.”
Bridgewater Interiors is restructuring its West Fort Street plant in southwest Detroit to build seats for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and plans to resume production until September, Hall said.
“The (Michigan Strategic Fund) approved today will facilitate the implementation of new constructions, new appliances and new hires for a new Ford program, and production of this program will begin in 2022,” Hall said Tuesday in an email to Crain’s Detroit Business, a subsidiary of Automotive News.
Bridgewater Interiors had added jobs and production to existing areas at its Northwood, Ohio plant, just south of Toledo, according to an information note from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. for the MSF board of directors.
According to the MEDC note, the automotive supplier’s toledo suburban plant has “a higher skill capacity density with previous experience in building car seats” than the Lansing market.
“In addition to the largest skill group, Ohio’s wages for those positions are lower than in Michigan and would generate significant savings for the company,” meCD said. “Incentive assistance is making Michigan’s expansion a competitive decision.”
MEDC staff awarded a $2 million grant to Bridgewater Interiors on the component to “compensate for the spread of charges compounding wage differences” between Northwood and Lansing and the charge of expanding the Lansing plant.
Bridgewater Interiors has 2,300 employees, 1,800 of whom they paint at their Detroit, Warren and Lansing facilities, Cloud said.
Founded in 1998, Bridgewater Interiors is a joint venture between Adient (formerly a component of Johnson Controls Inc.) and Epsilon Technologies LLC, a minority company founded through Hall’s father, Ron Hall Sr., who died in 2016.
Epsilon owns 51% of Bridgewater, Hall Jr. said.
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