Visteon to cease making Ford seats, Johnson Controls lands Ford seat contract - Ford Forums

Stacy94PGT · 03-06-2003, 08:15

Thursday, March 6, 2003
By From Detroit News and Bloomberg wire reports

DEARBORN -- Visteon Corp. is getting out of its money-losing seating business, a move that will result in the closure of its plant in Chesterfield Township in 2004.

The Ford contract generated 2.7 percent of Visteon's 2002 sales of $18.4 billion. Supplier Johnson Controls Inc. will take over production of seats for the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator and other vehicles.

Johnson Controls will manage the Visteon seat plant until 2004 when the factory will close. The additional Ford business will require Johnson Controls to build another Michigan factory.

Visteon hasn't determined how many of the 1,600 hourly and 150 salaried employees at the plant may lose jobs, spokesman Greg Gardner said. Severance packages will be offered to employees who are not relocated to other Visteon of Ford factories.

Visteon has been trying for months to unload the seating business, which analysts estimate was costing them about $100 million per year.

"If they get this seat business moved, it's a game changer for them," Stephen Girsky, an analyst with Morgan Stanley & Co., said earlier this year.

Thursday, March 6, 2003

Johnson Controls lands Ford seat contract
By Associated Press

GLENDALE, Wis. -- Johnson Controls won a new contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars to make seats for Ford Motor Co. vehicles.

Glendale-based Johnson Controls said Wednesday it will open a new factory in Michigan and expand work done at other Michigan factories as a result of the contract.

Johnson Controls, Wisconsin's largest corporation in terms of sales, landed the work after Visteon Corp. decided to stop making seats for Ford. The Ford contract generated 2.7 percent of Visteon's 2002 sales of $18.4 billion.

Johnson Controls, the No. 2 maker of seats and automotive interiors behind Lear Corp., will take over making seats for autos including the Ford Mustang and the Lincoln Town Car models.

"I would classify it as a large contract, in the hundreds of millions," said Johnson Controls spokesman Glen Ponczak.

Johnson Controls' automotive business is based in Plymouth, Mich., while its building controls systems and automotive battery businesses are in the Milwaukee area.