Vintech expands extrusion operations into Mexico

APODACA, MEXICO (Nov. 10, 4:55 p.m. ET) -- Vintech Industries Inc., an automotive industry Tier 2 supplier, is expanding its extrusion operations into Latin America in an effort to cut logistics costs.

The Imlay City, Mich.-based company has completed and validated an extrusion plant in Apodaca, a Monterrey suburb in northern Mexico.

“Customers we serve both in the United States and Mexico have asked us to support their production lines down in Mexico and to keep the cost of logistics and the time it takes to ship to a minimum,” said Rick Taylor, manager of Vintech’s Imlay City plant, in a Nov. 10 telephone interview.

President Jim Schoonover and fellow extrusion manufacturing veteran Vincent McNish started Vintech in 2004. The new plant will supply the automotive industry in Mexico and South America.

Vintech’s products are used by such companies as Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan. They include decorative and functional extrusions, bodyside molding, window laces, seals and channels.

Vintech has a manufacturing agreement with Redall Industries, a metal roll-forming and stamping company from Yale, Mich., Schoonover said in a news release.

“Redall’s 55,000-square-foot facility [in Apodaca] is located in a large industrial complex which has a number of North America-based Tier One suppliers,” he added.

“Redall is an ISO TS 16949:20020 certified company with capabilities in all aspects of manufacturing,” he added.

Vintech has 11 extrusion lines in Imlay City. According to plant manager Taylor, the Apodaca facility has “one to two” Davis-Standard extrusion lines.

“As we grow, we will be adding extrusion lines and people,” he said.

Asked whether Vintech, which employs about 30 in Imlay City, will eventually move all manufacturing out of the United States, Taylor responded: “We’re core Americans and have no plans to move out of the United States. We’ll always be here. It’s very, very expensive to ship from Michigan to Mexico and, if you take that cost out of it, you become very competitive.”

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