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AUTO PARTS MANUFACTURING
Honda chose Indiana for plant, but counts on Ohio for its parts
A supplier with a plant in Darke County is expanding; it is one of 140 Ohio companies that has links to Honda.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
NEW MADISON — — John Miles watched with interest last year as Ohio and Indiana competed for Honda's new assembly plant.
But Miles, general manager of Florida Production Engineering's Ohio plants, wasn't losing sleep.
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FPE has auto parts manufacturing plants in Circleville, south of Columbus, and in the Darke County village of New Madison, just 16 miles from the Ohio-Indiana border.
Either way, Miles believed, Ormond Beach, Fla.-based FPE was poised to serve Honda.
"We felt we would come out a winner," Miles said.
Last June's announcement that Honda would build the $400 million plant in Greensburg, in southeastern Indiana, was a disappointment to many in the Buckeye State.
But Ohio auto parts suppliers could console themselves that Honda — with six North American assembly operations — was staying near.
Ohio has by far the largest number of parts suppliers to Honda's North American operations. Honda spokesman Edward Miller said Ohio has 140 Honda suppliers, well above the company's 74 suppliers in Michigan and its 53 suppliers each in Indiana and Kentucky.
In 2006, Honda paid Ohio suppliers $6.4 billion, a good chunk of the $17.6 billion the company paid suppliers nationally, Miller said.
Across North America, Honda has 610 suppliers, with more than 500 in the United States. Look at a map, and one finds that many of those American suppliers tend to be scattered in and around central and western Ohio.
"Dayton is kind of the epicenter, really," Miller said.
FPE won't let itself be left out. In March, the Ohio Department of Development announced that the company's two Buckeye State plants would receive loans.
The Circleville facility will get a $1.3 million loan for a $3.3 million expansion expected to create 33 jobs within the expansion's first three years.
The New Madison plant is to receive a $1.2 million state loan in a $3 million expansion expected to retain 70 jobs and create 35 others within that plant expansion's first three years.
Both expansions are intended to help FPE draw new business from Honda. Already, 30 to 40 percent of all of the company's business is with Honda. The firm also serves General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and other automakers.
At New Madison, the company makes full wheel covers for Honda.
Florida Production Engineering
Employees: About 500 total.
Based: Ormond Beach, Fla.
Ownership: Private. A subsidiary of E.G.I. (Ernie Green Industries) Inc.
Plants:
New Madison
Employees: About 90
Size: About 80,000 square feet.
Circleville
Employees: About 220.
Size: About 130,000 square feet
Also: A plating plant in Cleveland, and other locations in Marion, Ohio, and Lancaster, S.C.
