Chinese company celebrates grand opening in Greenfield

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Greenfield Major Chuck Fewell addresses the crowd during the BWI grand opening. Gov. Eric Holcomb (seated, in red tie) and a number of other dignitaries came to celebrate the newest industrial plant to open in Greenfield. (Tom Russo | Daily Reporter)

An earlier version of this story misreported the starting hourly wage for maintenance technicians at BeijingWest Industries’ Greenfield plant. Maintenance technicians start at $17.70 and hour and increase to $18 an hour after six months.

GREENFIELD — State and local dignitaries celebrated the grand opening of a Chinese company’s first U.S. production facility on Friday.

BeijingWest Industries, a chassis supplier that designs and manufactures automotive brake and suspension systems, broke ground in 2017 on the more-than-$80 million, 276,514-square foot facility on Opportunity Parkway.

The plant already employs more than 100 and will soon ship thousands of shock absorbers a day to a major automotive company. A BWI Group executive said it’s just the beginning of the impact the facility will have on Greenfield and the global auto market.

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Gov. Eric Holcomb took the podium on the spotless, white factory floor. BWI employees worked the automated machinery, many of them involving robots, in the vast, brightly lit space beyond.

“This is not your grandpa’s factory,” Holcomb said, the microphone lifting his voice over the equipment humming in the background. “This is a world-class facility.”

Holcomb credited Greenfield and the way it worked with BWI, which he said chose the city among “every option in the world.”

“As good as the state of Indiana is, I’m convinced that Greenfield sealed the deal,” Holcomb said. “It’s the vibrancy of this community; it’s the way that all the teammates came together.”

Tom Gold, vice president of operations for BWI, said the company chose Greenfield and the Midwest for the competitive advantage it provides.

“Indiana people like to win,” Gold said.

When BWI announced its plans in 2017, Indiana had the second-largest automotive industry in the U.S., Holcomb had said at the time.

Gold told the Daily Reporter that BWI’s Greenfield plant has hired about 125 so far. A press release from the company states it’s on pace to hire 195 by the end of the year and up to 441 by the end of 2021.

By October, BWI will be shipping 6,000 shock absorbers a day from Greenfield to Ford Motor Co., Gold said.

“And that will continue to grow,” he added.

The plant plans to add more customers and eventually start manufacturing other suspension systems, Gold said.

Crystal Kottlowski, human resources representative for BWI in Greenfield, told the Daily Reporter that the plant employs a variety of workers making hourly wages to salary and that they all play an integral role in the company’s mission.

“We need all of them,” she said.

Production associates start out at $14.20 an hour, Kottlowski said, while maintenance technicians start with an hourly wage of $17.70 before rising to $18 an hour after six months. Lead technicians make $27.70 an hour.

Indiana Secretary of Commerce Jim Schellinger addressed the grand opening’s attendees as well, calling economic development a full-contact team sport that requires a great quarterback, which the state has found in Holcomb.

“This is an exciting day for BWI. This is an exciting day for the city. This is an exciting day for the state of Indiana,” Schellinger said.

Greenfield Mayor Chuck Fewell recalled the beginnings of the project and the incentives the city provided to help see it through.

“As mayor, today I welcome you as a friend of Greenfield,” Fewell told the BWI employees in attendance.

Before attendees took tours of the facility, Randy Sorrell, director of the Hancock Economic Development Council, told the Daily Reporter that BWI is a “big win” for Greenfield and the county.

“We’re very excited to have them here,” Sorrell said. “We continue to support their efforts and help them grow.”

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BWI Group is a chassis supplier that designs and manufactures brake and suspension systems for the global transportation market. Along with China and the U.S., it has locations in Mexico, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Czech Republic and Japan.

Source: bwigroup.com

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