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A look at a legacy: The Upstate’s evolving automotive cluster |
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The Upstate has nurtured the automotive business, cultivating a "cluster" for a long time, even when textile manufacuturing was still humming. (Photo courtesy BMW Manufacturing Co.)
By Lydia Dishman
Contributing Writer
Michele Holland, business operations manager for the German manufacturer Richard Fritz Group, is out of breath. The company officially announced the establishment of its first U.S. plant on Feb. 1, which opened and began production in just four months. Holland now oversees the day-to-day activities of a lean operation that produces glass encapsulation, and plastic moldings, components and modular systems for the automotive industry. Her days are hectic, but she spares a moment to explain how Richard Fritz chose Duncan, in Spartanburg County, as the place for its first U.S. manufacturing plant.
“This is a good central location for the automotive business,” she said, citing the close proximity to the Mercedes plant in Alabama, for whom the manufacturer produces side windows. BMW, whose only U.S. manufacturing facility is just a few miles up the road, is not among Richard Fritz’s clients, yet. Holland hopes to become a supplier in the future. “We will continue to add product lines and staff,” she said. “That includes engineers involved in research and development.”
Just a few weeks after the Fritz announced its first U.S. plant, the German metalworking company, Koerber, also announced they were coming to the U.S. The company had considered 23 sites in five different states for its first factory in this country. Koerber chose Laurens, and will spend $5 million to upfit an existing building in an industrial park.
“We are a Tier 2 supplier and therefore a supplier to the European-based Tier 1 suppliers here in the Southeast,” explained Martin Niggemeier, managing director of the company’s U.S. unit.
The strategic location, coupled with the cooperation of the county’s economic development department and the encouragement of the S.C. Department of Commerce, put this German manufacturer on the list of a growing number of businesses, both foreign and domestic, that are putting down roots in the Upstate.
It is not surprising that both of these announcements were made within the same month. The Upstate has nurtured the automotive business, cultivating a “cluster” for a long time, even while its textile manufacturing industry was still humming. What has emerged is not only a strong economic engine, but a legacy that embraces the region’s past with its old-line manufacturing and the future of a knowledge-based industry.
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