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Brighton Auto Supplier Moving, Hiring
By Steve Raphael
Business Direct Weekly, July 08, 2004
Business is humming for Brighton-based TG Fluid Systems USA Corp., an automotive supplier.
The company last week began moving into a new, larger building, operates shifts each week and is now hiring in anticipation explosion of new business this quarter, said President Scott Maly.
The company makes fuel lines and evaporative emission systems either directly for its automotive clients or for fuel tank manufacturers.
Phoenix-based EaglePicher Inc. started TG Fluid in Brighton eight years ago, but Aichi, Japan based manufacturer Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd. Bought TG Fluid in 2000 and made it a division of Troy-based Toyoda Gosei N.A.
TG Fluid generated $20 million in sales last year and employs 236 people, an increase from 225 at the start of the year, Maly said.
It has exclusive contracts to make fuel systems for three automotive manufacturers – Toyota, Honda, and General Motors Corp. - all
Of which are introducing new or redesigned vehicles later this year. Maly said the additional business will result in a 70-percent increase in sales this year – from $20 million last year to $34 million.
Toyota is introducing three products; Tacoma and Tundra pick-up trucks and the Sequoia, an SUV. The company will build 170,000 Tacomas, 100,000 Tundras, and 80,000 Sequoias.
Honda will build 180,000 Odyssey vans and GM will build 200,000 Grand AMs.
In anticipation of the increased business, Maly is hiring 25 assembly technicians this quarter.
TG Fluid late last month began moving out of its 39,000-square-foot building on Lochlin Drive in Brighton and into an existing 72,000-square-foot facility on advance Street.
Jim Montgomery of Signature Associates in Southfield was the broker.
The larger facility would provide TG Fluid with the flexibility to return to a more traditional three-shift operation, seven days a week, if it chooses, Maly said. The company currently operates two 10-hour shifts, Monday through Thursday, and two 13-hour shifts on weekends at its smaller quarters.
With no end in sight for TG Fluid’s rate of growth, Maly said the company will be back in the market for larger space because its new building “will contain us for only three or four years.”
TG Fluid Systems is one of here suppliers making similar products for automotive supplier Kautex Textron Inc, based in Troy.
“They have had issues in the past but their response to the issues have been pretty timely”, Prasad said. “They definitely put a good foot forward to make sure the issues were taken care of.”
TG Fluid sometimes had sent Kautex some defective or misassembled parts, and Prasad couldn’t figure out if the problem happened during manufacturing, packaging or shipping.
But in the past five years, TG Fluid “has definitely stepped up its act,” said Prasad, who attributed the company’s attentive behavior to Maly.
“They call us to find out how things are going rather than us calling them.” he said.
At one time, two families of Asian origin were responsible for providing 20 percent of TG Fluid’s workforce. Some employees are first generation Americans. Most commute to work from as far away as Warren, Flint, and Pinckney.
“We try to encourage our employees to recommend family and friends,” Maly said. “It makes for a more dedicated workforce.”
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