Ford to Sell One of Two Remaining ACH Plants

Automotive supplier Ventra Sandusky, a member of the Flex-N-Gate group, is acquiring Ford’s Sandusky, OH-based headlamp and taillight business, which currently is operated by Automotive Components Holdings.

ACH, composed of orphaned manufacturing plants and other facilities Ford acquired from former subsidiary Visteon, earlier this month announced the sale of its Saline, MI-based interiors components business to French supplier Faurecia.

Following completion of the sale, ACH will have only one remaining operation, the climate-control business at its Sheldon Road plant in Plymouth Township, MI.

“This announcement is another significant step as we reach the final phase in our ACH strategy,” Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas, says in a statement. 

“From the start, our aim was to ensure an orderly transition for employees and provide ready access to high-quality components for Ford, even while we restructured and prepared these operations for sale or disposition,” he says. “We have been working our plan and living up to our commitment for six years.”

The sale also represents continued expansion of Ford’s business with minority-owned suppliers, building on the auto maker’s 2011 record of more than $2 billion in purchases from minority-owned businesses.

The Flex-N-Gate group is owned by Pakistani-American Shahid Khan, who purchased the supplier in 1980.