Farmington Hills, Mich.-based automotive lighting supplier Luxit Group has acquired an 88,000-square-foot lighting products manufacturing facility in Pulaski, Tenn., from Proper Group International LLC.
The facility, which began operations in 2016, features 24 injection molding machines ranging from 80 to 1,300 metric tons, Luxit CEO Stephane Vedie told Plastics News in an interview.
"I think this is a great fit for us and I was really impressed by the skills of the people, the technology," Vedie said.
Luxit will keep all 140 employees at the plant and plans to add assembly positions, he said.
"Not only will we maintain the workforce, but we will look for additional employees," Vedie said. "There is more capacity and space in this plant, so we want to grow."
"It's an interesting plant in terms of equipment," he added. "This is a plant that has brought a lot of specific skills to lighting."
The acquisition will add multi-color injection molding, anti-fog and hard coating, and assembly capabilities to a location close to many of Luxit's customers, a Dec. 13 news release said.
The company declined to comment on the cost of the acquisition.
"We are adding capacity to support our rapid growth … [in] small lamp and auxiliary lighting," Vedie said in the release. "This strategic acquisition further adds to our vertical integration strategy and will also help us reach critical size with key customers.We are confident that we will be able to better serve our current customers [and] offer a logistics advantage to new customers."
"The acquisition of the lighting business by Luxit Group is a great fit and an exciting opportunity for the Pulaski team," said Michael Mualem, president of Warren, Mich.-based Proper Group Manufacturing. "As part of Luxit Group, additional profitable growth opportunities will be generated based on the strong combined product knowledge and manufacturing technologies."
The Pulaski plant is Luxit Group's fifth U.S. plant and its ninth globally. Luxit's Tier 1 division supplies small lamps and auxiliary lighting to North American OEMs. Its Tier 2 division is a global supplier to lighting, headlamp and rear lamp Tier 1 suppliers, providing die casting, thixomolding, plastic injection molding, metallization and electronics assembly.