Company opens Xenia plant, brings 35 jobs


Mahle Group at a glance

Founded: 1920

Headquarters: Stuttgart, Germany

Industry: Automotive parts manufacturer

Locations: 1,700 production plants, and 13 research & development centers worldwide

Employees: 75,000

Annual sales: $11 billion

Mahle GmbH, a Germany-based automotive industry supplier, has opened a packaging and shipping plant in Xenia on Bellbrook Avenue, according to city officials.

The new plant in Xenia is expected to bring 35 jobs to the area, according to the city development department.

The company will take products manufactured at its Dayton location and transport them to Xenia for final packaging and shipping, said Steve Brodsky, the Xenia development director.

“The new jobs will have a positive impact on the economy,” Brodsky said. “We are also hopeful that with this activity, additional tenants will be attracted to the building, as Mahle is currently utilizing approximately one-third of the space.”

Mahle has not requested any tax incentives.

Renovations on the new location, in the former SuperValu building, started in January, and operations started last week, according to the city.

Last year, Mahle completed a $727 million acquisition of Delphi's global thermal management business. That included the facility at 250 Northwoods Boulevard in Vandalia after taking a majority ownership stake in the Behr Group, which owns a manufacturing plant at 1600 Webster St. in Dayton, in 2014. This resulted in plans to move more than 300 workers from the former Dephi Thermal plant in Vandalia to the Mahle Behr plant in Dayton by the end of 2016 to integrate Mahle's local operations.

Company officials said both facilities produce similar thermal and heating, air conditioning and ventilation products for vehicles, so merging the Dayton and Vandalia facilities was the best way to take advantage of the manufacturing synergies at both plants, according to previous reports by this newspaper.

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