Jul 27 2006
TACLE Seating U.K. Ltd., a joint venture between Lear Corporation and Tachi-S, a leading Japanese seating supplier, announced that it has established a new facility in Sunderland, U.K., to manufacture seats, and sequence wire harnesses and smart junction boxes for an all-new Nissan compact crossover vehicle in Europe.
TACLE Seating U.K. Ltd. was formed in September 2005, with Lear holding a 51% stake and Tachi-S a 49% stake. The Sunderland facility is the TACLE joint venture's first U.K. plant and its third location globally. The 11,000-square- meter facility will be fully operational in November 2006, and will employ up to 200 people to support the launch of the Nissan program, the first complete design project to have come from Nissan Design Europe which opened in London in January 2003.
TACLE recently held a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the $25-million facility dedicated to supplying seats to Nissan's assembly plant in Sunderland, U.K. On hand for the opening ceremony were officials from Nissan, Lear, Tachi-S and local government agencies.
"A top priority for Lear is to further diversify our customer base by continuing to expand our business with Asian automakers," said Gideon Jewel, president of Lear's Japanese Customer Division. "With leading partners like Tachi-S, we can assure new customers we will provide them the legendary service, quality and competitiveness for which our company is known. We're very excited about the opportunity and we look forward to a long and successful relationship with Nissan globally."
In addition to the new business with Nissan in the U.K., the TACLE joint venture has locations to supply seats to Nissan in North America through a new facility in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., currently under construction, as well as an additional facility in Guanzhou, China.