Auto parts maker Green Tokai Co. Ltd. of Brookville, Ohio, is looking for a site for a second plant. The subsidiary of Tokai Kogyo Co. Ltd. of Nagoya, Japan, makes plastic and rubber trim and seals for General Motors Corp. and Japanese transplants, said John Wilson, finance director of Green Tokai. Injection molded and extruded plastic parts make up roughly 70 percent of its business, he said.
Last week the state of Ohio granted Green Tokai a 10-year, 70 percent corporate tax credit to start up auto part production in a new, 81,000-square-foot facility in Upper Sandusky. But, Wilson noted, the site is just one of several his company is reviewing in the tri-state area of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
The Ohio tax-credit proposal requires Green Tokai to invest $6.9 million, and create 200 jobs within a three-year period, said Lisa Peterson, spokeswoman for the Ohio Job Creation Tax Credit Authority in Columbus.
Meanwhile Green Tokai also has asked the state of Kentucky for a 39 percent tax credit on a $9.86 million investment in an existing 208,000-square-foot plant in Maysville, according to the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority. That plant would employ 100.
Kentucky has yet to rule on the proposal.
Wilson said Green Tokai wants to find an existing facility that is located ``relatively close'' to its major customers, which include Honda Manufacturing Inc. in Marysville, Ohio; and Cami Automotive Inc., a joint venture between GM and Suzuki.
``We're just looking at various sites,'' he said. ``We should know one way or another by the end of January.''
Green Tokai started in 1988 as a joint venture of Tokai Kogyo and Ernie Green Industries Inc. of Dayton, Ohio; Green pulled out of that operation in 1991, Wilson said.
Parent Tokai Kogyo makes plastic and rubber auto parts mainly for Japanese carmakers.