Daimler Supplier HBPO Opens Mexico Plant

Automotive supplier HBPO opens a plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, that will produce modular front-end systems for Mercedes-Benz A-Class sedans at a nearby Daimler assembly facility.

The 50,200-sq.-ft. (4,660-sq.-m) plant has 70 employees and is operating on two 12-hour shifts Monday through Saturday, HBPO says in a news release. The factory will have more than 100 employees when full production is reached next year.

The plant has the capacity to produce up to 145,000 complex front-end modules per year. The delivery of just-in-sequence front-end modules for vehicles coming down Daimler’s assembly line involves the management of more than 185 individual components and can be completed on three hours’ notice, plant manager Carlos Galan says.

“We know that Daimler expects its suppliers to deliver nothing but the highest-quality service and products for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class, its newest entry in the luxury compact segment,”

says Diana Mannino, president of Troy, MI-based HBPO North America.  “That’s what HBPO plans to deliver from our new facility in Aguascalientes.”

Headquartered in Lippstadt, Germany, HBPO is a joint venture in which Tier 1 suppliers Plastic Omnium and Hella own two-thirds and one-third stakes, respectively. In addition to Aguascalientes it has North American production facilities in Windsor, ON, Canada, and Puebla, San Jose Chiapa and Toluca, Mexico.

HBPO’s plants globally produced more than 5.7 million front-end modules in 2017.