Township auto parts plant is firm's first outside Italy - Hometownlife.com
A company that makes parts found in about one-fourth of the world’s automobile engines has opened a factory in Plymouth Township, its first outside Italy in its nearly 90-year history. Ford Motor Co. is its biggest customer in the U. S. Brugola purchased the site on Port Street last year and began production there several months ago, said Kevin Stanisz, vice president of sales and marketing. Eighteen people now work at the plant, Stanisz said, and employment is expected to reach 75-80, most of them in the skilled trades, by the end of 2017 as more equipment is brought into the facility to increase production. A heat-treatment furnace expected to be acquired in 2017 will give the plant the ability to produce 100 percent of the product line that’s made in Italy, Stanisz said. There are six pieces of manufacturing equipment at the plant now, he said, and that should grow to about 22 pieces by 2017. Brugola’s U. S. sales, Stanisz said, are around $20 million to $22 million annually and are projected to grow to $38... Parts had previously been shipped from Italy by freighter, he said, but now, “All the plants we supply in North America are within a three-hour radius. Brugola had a parts warehouse in Canton Township since 1999, but closed that at the end of 2014 and began warehousing at the Port Street facility. Source: www.hometownlife.com
