voestalpine Automotive Body Parts fueling growth with regional customers, local students
When Gov. Nathan Deal announced the second major expansion of an Austrian-based automotive supplier off Cassville-White Road in Bartow County last week, it was not a big surprise to many economic developers across Northwest Georgia.
voestalpine Automotive Body Parts announced in April of 2014 that it had already received orders that would push the first expansion of its plant to full production capacity before it was ever built.
President Phillip Schulz said the company currently has a little over 100 employees and would have 220 by the time the first expansion is fully operational, probably by mid-2017. The second expansion, announced Tuesday, will add another 150 workers by 2019.
Schulz said he can’t name his customers, but he refers to them as “premier German manufacturers.” There is a Mercedes Benz plant in Alabama, Volkswagen in Tennessee and BMW in South Carolina.
When the auto parts maker said in August 2012 it planned to build a plant in the Highland 75 Industrial Park north of Cartersville, Schulz said the site is ideally situated between the three German assembly plants.
The latest addition to the plant will take the voestalpine investment in Bartow county up to $112 million. Schulz said he anticipates even further growth as the company expands its customer base.
“We have designed this property and the layout of our buildings so that we can further expand here and we’re working on that. This should not be the end of the road here,” Schulz said.
Bartow County sole Commissioner Steve Taylor said the company got a significant price break on the 17 acres it will use for the new expansion.
“Property in that park is going for about $45,000 an acre and since they optioned that property when they made their initial announcement, they exercised the option at $25,000 an acre,” Taylor said.
The CartersvilleBartow County Joint Development Authority approved a 15-year tax abatement package for the building and a 10year package for the equipment. The company will pay no county property tax for the first three years of each package and then gradually increase the percentage it pays. It will pay its full share of county school taxes.
High-strength steels
Engineers at voestalpine have spent more than a decade developing and perfecting technology that allows the company to make ultrahigh-strength steels.
“It’s a steel that is mild and formable in its initial stage. Then, after we form it, we heat-treat it and cool it down very quickly and it basically triples in strength,” Schulz said.
What that does, he said, is create a much stronger body part for an automobile without adding weight that affects fuel mileage.
“Weight is always a part of calculating how much acceleration resistance, and when you get the weight lower then you can accelerate with less force. Less force means less fuel,” Schulz said. “It’s not a voestalpine accomplishment to do that, but this is our construction to that process. It’s why our steels are so successful in the market — because they are exactly targeting that demand.”
While the company currently serves the German manufacturing market, Schulz said it is talking with other manufacturers.
“Our process is a little different from the mainstream so it’s a niche,” he said.
The company has been working with German manufacturers for more than 60 years, so they are familiar with the voestalpine business model and brand.
“With the American original equipment manufacturers or the Asian transplants, this has to be built up and it takes more time,” said Schulz.
The products made in Bartow County are structural parts — basic elements of an automobile’s skeleton.
That includes A pillars and B pillars, which are vertical supports that connect the roof to the main frame of a vehicle, along with other structural steel forms.
Committed to training
Schulz also explained that voestalpine puts an emphasis on career development for its employees and is “very committed to education” in the Bartow County facility.
“We have just started a very intensive training program for all of our operators and shop associates in order to qualify them for all the automotive skills we need here,” he said. “We do that internally and I think that’s something that sets us apart.”
The company also operates a German-style apprenticeship program through the Bartow College and Career Academy.
At the moment, six students from the BCCA are in a work-based learning program that puts them in the plant 20 hours per week. Schulz said they are paid while they train to become the next generation of workers.
“They’re not just standing on the line but they are getting trained in basic skills such as how to work metal, how to read a blueprint — so they can try what that learn in school directly afterwards in practice,” he said.
The company has already extended job offers to a couple of apprentices, but both decided they wanted to go to college.
Schulz said they are staying in touch and he hopes, when they graduate, they might come back to voestalpine.
“That would be ideal, but we are also prepared to not get everyone out of that program,” he said.
The company also has a good partnership with the regional technical colleges, he said.
Commissioner Taylor said the partnership with the schools is one of the best aspects of the relationship voestalpine has developed with the community.