IRAPUATO, GUANAJUATO, Mexico – HELLA has broken ground on its new Irapuato lighting facility in the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Total investment is approximately $100 million.
The modern facility will house advanced equipment and processes for producing HELLA’s environmentally focused and energy-efficient LED lighting technologies. Plans for the new facility include a reduction of its CO2 global footprint and an increased focus on HELLA innovative "green" plant solutions.
By June of this year, approximately 1.2 million headlamps and 1.5 million rear combination lamps will be produced at the 24,000-square-meter manufacturing facility, supplying lighting technologies for both the North and South America regions. HELLA says the new facility will increase the company’s combined total production capacity for these regions from 3.7 million headlamps to 4.9 million headlamps and from 2.5 million rear combination lamps to 4 million rear combination lamps.
"We are very pleased with HELLA’s strong level of commitment to this region," said Miguel Marquez Marquez, governor of the State of Guanajuato, at the groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. 1. "Irapuato is an ideal location for supplying leading technologies to the growing markets in both of the Americas."
Since 1964, HELLA has maintained operations in Mexico, with continuous expansion activities as part of its overall globalization strategy. Anticipating the growing market potential for both North and South America, and the increasing need for local customer proximity, HELLA built a new design and development center in Guadalajara more than a year ago, which currently employs 65 people. In all, HELLA has more than 2,500 employees in North and South America.
"I would like to thank the Government of Guanajuato for its dedicated support in this project, the second one cooperatively developed with them that will generate more than 800 new jobs in Irapuato," said Ignacio Moreno, president and CEO of HELLA Lighting North and South America.
"We anticipate continued growth and development for both North and South America in the coming year," added Dr. Rolf Breidenbach, president and CEO, HELLA KGaA Hueck & Co. "With our new plant in Irapuato, we will increase our production capacity in the NAFTA region and be able to quickly identify and address customer requirements. This robust infrastructure enables direct access to several major OEM’s, signifying Irapuato as a strategically important location for HELLA."
