The company also plans to hire more than 300 workers, bringing its total Dayton workforce to about 1,550 employees in the next 18 months, up from about 1,030 workers just nine months ago, he said.
“Yes, we are expanding,” Baker said.
The investment and hiring are being driven by new business, particularly from Chevrolet, Mercedes Benz, BMW and others. The plant — which makes thermal and heating, ventilation and air conditioning products for automobiles — is running three shifts seven days a week, Baker said.
“Business is booming,” he said. “Actually, I would say the automotive market is back in full, in a way I haven’t seen in 24 years.”
The plant’s north complex is being remade from a warehouse into an operations site, with room for new injection molding work.
The plant has 1.1 million square feet of space under roof. But about a year ago, only about half of that space was devoted to operations or production. Now, about 500,000 square feet is coming online for operations work, and a logistics operation will be shifted to a third-party company.
Company leaders would prefer to devote space to manufacturing rather than storage, the manager said.
“No one is going to lose their job, believe me,” Baker said. “More than enough jobs are presenting themselves inside the facility.”
A group focusing on shipping of service parts to original equipment manufacturers has moved to Xenia, where Mahle Behr has about 30 employees.
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