German auto parts firm Kauth to build plant, start production by 2020

German parts maker Kauth will eventually employ 350 at its new North American headquarters in Windsor

Brian Cross/The Windsor Star

German auto parts company Kauth plans to build a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Windsor starting next year with plans to start production in 2020 and employ 350, the company’s managing director said Thursday.

At a celebratory official opening of its North American headquarters on land that’s part of Windsor International Airport, Steffen May said that after 18 months of meetings: “I know Kauth and Windsor will be a Canadian-German success story.”

The company has already hired a couple of staff, as it ramps up a warehouse and distribution operation on a building built three years ago but never occupied — part of the $17-million cargo hub on airport land that also houses the Fed Ex shipment centre and the Institute of Border Logistics and Security.

The warehouse operation will employ 25, May said. A new manufacturing facility, also on leased land, will be built beside it on 10 acres of leased land. [Read More]