Today, German manufacturer Mahle Behr LLC, is celebrating its Dayton plant’s centennial anniversary, recognizing the site’s century of work.
The 1.2 million-square-foot plant is not only one of Dayton’s oldest employers, it is one of the city’s largest manufacturers, with about 936 workers, according to plant manager Juan Lopez.
Credit: Kevin Lush Photography
Credit: Kevin Lush Photography
The Dayton plant’s history well predates Chrysler’s interest in the site. Construction of the plant started in the early 1920s, and the plant was operating by 1925 as a Maxwell Motor Co. plant, said Eugene DiGirolamo, an executive director of operations for Mahle Behr.
It’s a notable run in an era where only 43% of the manufacturers that started in 2013 survived a decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
In 2002, what was the Chrysler Group agreed to sell its Dayton Thermal Products plant to Behr GmbH, based in Stuttgart, Germany. Eleven years later, German firm Mahle GmbH took a majority ownership stake in the Behr Group.
“A lot of folks know us as Chrysler,” DiGirolamo said of the local plant’s shifting identity. “Or they know us as Behr.”
Chrysler and its corporate descendants controlled the plant from the late 1930s until 2002.
Today, Mahle Behr has 15 U.S. locations with an American headquarters in Farmington Hills, Mich. But of the company’s American plants, Dayton stands out.
“This is, for sure, the oldest one,” said Jeff Trent, a spokesman for Mahle Behr.
“I grew up here,” DiGirolamo said. “My dad was retired from Delco Moraine back in the day.”
At the Dayton plant’s peak, sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, perhaps around 5,000 people worked at the plant at one time, DiGirolamo recalled.
In the 21st century, Behr-Dayton specializes in thermal components for automotive manufacturers such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) modules for vehicles. Radiators, engine cooling modules and viscous fan clutch drives are also produced there.
These are components that nearly every vehicle needs. Behr sees the plant as being “well-positioned to support future demands in electrification and energy-efficient thermal systems,” the company said in a recent release.
Last year, the company had nearly 5,000 American employees total, across all of its plants.
The secret to this plant’s longevity: Its people, Lopez said.
“We have what I call kind of a small community,” he said. “That is No. 1.”
But updating technology and controlling costs also play a big role, he added. And so does having an impressive roster of customers.
“Now we take care of just about everybody,” DiGirolamo said when talking about who his customers are.
That roster includes Toyota, Nissan, GM, Ford, Honda, Audi, Volkswagen, Volvo, Freightliner, Mack, Mercedes, BMW and many others.
“When you have a broad customer base, that helps you stay in the business a little more, especially in the tough times,” he said.
In the automotive industry, margins are tight. Mahle Behr procures components out of Canada, Mexico and Asia. Goods are coming from those locations into Dayton. In turn, Dayton supplies plants in Michigan and South Carolina.
Credit: Kevin Lush Photography
Credit: Kevin Lush Photography
“The tariffs are interesting for all of us,” DiGirolamo said. “It’s a new problem that we’re all having to deal with in the industry.”
As always, the Dayton plant is “spot hiring.”
Automotive sales have been a bit flat this year, although July saw a bit of a rebound. Normal workplace attrition drives a certain amount of hiring. In the last month or so, the Dayton plant has hired about 20 people, Lopez said.
To apply, visit the plant at 1600 Webster or to to www.mahle.com.
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