Detroit-based Bridgewater Interiors LLC is scheduled to announce on Monday that its new contract to build seats for Ford is valued at more than $US500 million annually.
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The Detroit Free Press said that amount is Ford’s largest contract with a minority [ethnic group]-owned supplier, and is also believed to be the largest between a carmaker and a minority supplier.
The newspaper said a ceremony to celebrate the deal is scheduled for Bridgewater’s new 265,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Warren which opened in December 2003 on the grounds of the former Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant.
Under the new contract, the plant will provide seats for the new F-150 pickup truck and the Expedition and Lincoln Navigator sport-utility vehicles, the ‘Freep’ reported.
The paper said the plant, which employs 500 workers to build the SUV seats, is expected to employ about 100 more when it begins making the F-150 seats and ramps up to full production later this year.
The business will be a shot in the arm for Bridgewater, an interior supplier with revenues of $162 million in 2002 and about 200 workers at a Fort Street plant in Detroit, president and CEO Ronald Hall previously said, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The report said Bridgewater is owned by Epsilon LLC, also of Detroit, and Johnson Controls, which has a 49% share.
