Car-mirror manufacturer Gentex Corp. is to set up a 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at Zeeland, in Michigan, USA. The new factory will be located close to an existing, 100 acre, Gentex facilit…
Car-mirror manufacturer Gentex Corp. is to set up a 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant at Zeeland, in Michigan, USA. The new factory will be located close to an existing, 100 acre, Gentex facility. The company expects that 625 people will be working in its new factory within five years of its 2005 opening. The company will invest USD 97 million in the building, including the USD 17 million spent to buy the site. Gentex, which is the largest supplier of automatically dimming rear-view car mirrors, needs the factory space for added capacity. Its key rival, Magna Donnelly, is headquartered nearby. Gentex had considered building the plant in the state of Georgia, attracted by lower wages. However, a USD 9.2 million tax credit and nearly USD 2 million in other financial incentives offered by Michigan Economic Development Corp. helped to persuade Gentex to build the new factory close to its existing operations. Garth Deur, executive vice president, said keeping Gentex operations in the same area was the better choice.”The site makes sense for us economically and logistically,” he said.