Automotive injection molding supplier U.S. Farathane Corp. plans to open a new location in Georgetown, Texas.
Auburn Hills, Mich.-based USF has leased more than 260,000 square feet in a new industrial park in Georgetown, according to a Feb. 6 article from the Austin Business Journal. The article said USF "has a longtime presence in Austin and is a known supplier of Tesla Inc. and other notable vehicle makers."
Its location, GTX Logistics Park, "is set to become one of the largest in the region."
The new site will employ more than 100 and will open as soon as infrastructure is completed, a USF spokesman told the Journal. USF has employed more than 200 at a 250,000-square-foot plant in Austin for more than 10 years.
The article added that several Tesla suppliers have opened or expanded manufacturing sites in the Austin area in recent years. It also said Georgetown, about 35 miles north of Austin, "for the last two years has been the fastest-growing city of its size in the country." USF will be the first tenant in the new industrial park, which covers 230 acres.
News of the Texas expansion comes two months after USF announced it was closing a 176-employee plant in Shelby Township, Mich. In an email at the time, a company spokesman said USF "has come to the end of the long-term lease contract and therefore will be exiting the facility." He added the Shelby Township plant size and layout "are not ideal to accommodate our future growth."
Private equity firm Atlas Holdings LLC of Greenwich, Conn., acquired USF in April from the Gores Group, a Los Angeles-based PE firm that had owned USF since 2014. Atlas has several portfolio companies in the automotive industry.
With 18 manufacturing plants in the U.S., Mexico and China, USF is No. 7 in Plastics News' injection molders ranking. It says it has more than 5,000 employees and operates 550 injection molding presses globally. USF was the 2005 Plastics News Processor of the Year.
USF does injection molding, compression molding and extrusion and offers design, tooling and engineering services. The firm's customers include General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, Tesla, Toyota, Honda, Rivian and other leading global automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers.