Brewer auto parts firms avoiding downturn, manager says

BANGOR – The automotive industry in North America may not be as robust as it used to be, but for the operators of car component manufacturing facilities in Brewer, things are going well, according to an official with Brewer Automotive Components.

Since last fall, General Motors and Ford each have announced that they intend to eliminate 30,000 jobs and to close several plants in the United States and Canada. Ford plans to close 14 plants in the next six years and GM is looking to shut down nine facilities by 2008.

Andy Fitzpatrick, plant manager for Brewer Automotive Components, said Friday that his company and a local sister facility owned by German company ZF Friedrichshafen AG are doing well, though Ford and GM are among the customers of the 210-employee ZF suspension component plant, as are Daimler-Chrysler and BMW. Fitzpatrick made the remarks while addressing the Action Committee of 50, a local economic development advocacy group, at Husson College.

BAC, which has 160 employees and 2005 sales of $55 million, has Toyota as its main customer, Fitzpatrick said. Though automotive sales are down 3.6 percent industrywide, he said, Toyota’s share has risen more than 4 percent and is expected to grow further.

“They’re hitting the big truck market with a vengeance,” he said.

BAC’s role in supplying Toyota is significant. Fitzpatrick said every Camry model sold in the United States and Canada has suspension components made in Brewer.

“We are the supplier to Toyota in North America,” Fitzpatrick said, giving “the” extra emphasis. “We ship from Maine to California. There’s some tremendous growth for the BAC group.”

In fact, BAC has expanded out of state, recently opening a second facility in Wytheville, Va., he said.

Fitzpatrick said the definition of an “American” car has changed significantly since the big three Detroit manufacturers – Chrysler, Ford, and GM – ruled the roost. Toyota may be headquartered in its birth country of Japan, he said, but globalization has blurred the industry’s national identities.

“There’s more American components in a Toyota Camry than in a GM pickup now,” he said.

Honda, Subaru, Lexus and Mitsubishi are the other manufacturers supplied by BAC.

Fitzpatrick said he addressed the group in order to highlight the facilities’ economic importance to the Bangor area and to be “proactive” about rising energy costs in Maine. BAC’s power costs, he said, have increased significantly since last summer, as they have for most manufacturing businesses in Maine and New England.

“We’re committed to where we are and what we’re doing,” he said. “This is a challenge we have in front of us.”