Report: Truck-Lite To Move HQ To Michigan
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FALCONER -- A longtime truck lighting supplier is reportedly moving its Falconer headquarters to Michigan.
The Detroit News reported that Truck-Lite Co. LCC plans to invest $4 million into a new building in Southfield, Mich., while creating 95 jobs. In doing so, the company will move its headquarters from its 310 E. Elmwood Ave. facility in Falconer, though it's not known how many local employees who work within the sprawling plant will be impacted.
Truck-Lite could not be reached for comment Saturday. A message to a local spokesman wasn't immediately returned.
According to the Detroit News, the company cited "proximity to supply chains and qualified workers as reasons for the move."
The newspaper said the public-private Michigan Economic Development Corp. is providing Truck-Lite -- which manufactures lighting products for a variety of vehicles including heavy-duty and military -- $855,000 in a performance-based grant.
"Southfield doesn't have GM, Chrysler or Ford, but we have a whole range of companies that support the world's leading automakers," Southfield Mayor Kevin Siver told the Detroit News. "I think it makes sense for Truck-Lite to locate here. They're in the same neighborhood with many like-minded people or businesses that are pursuing parallel courses and supporting innovation for the revolution going on in vehicle manufacturing today."
Truck-Lite will be required to create 95 jobs through 2024 as part of its agreement with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. In all, the company employs 3,000 people at all of its locations.
The company has a long history in southern Chautauqua County. Truck-Lite was founded in 1955 in rented quarters in Jamestown's business district. In a 1960 article in The Post-Journal, Truck-Lite founder George D. Baldwin announced that the company needed to move into a large location in order to keep up with the production of sealed plastic throw-away units for stop and tail lamps for trucks.
Truck-Lite went from seven employees at its Monroe Street home in 1958 to 25 employees at its new Hopkins Avenue facility.
"We will gain at least three times the production space we had in our old building," Baldwin told the newspaper in May 1960.
Ground was broken on Elmwood Avenue in October 1966 for a one-story, $800,000 plant to house Truck-Lite and United Precision Plastics Inc., both of which were wholly owned subsidiaries by Quaker State Oil Refining Corp.
Truck-Lite expanded its workforce in the mid-1970s, and with it came expansion at the company's Elmwood Avenue location. In October 1976, a $570,250 expansion project was launched.
In 1977, about 250 employees at Truck-Lite went on strike over wages, hours and seniority. The strike ended about three weeks later when members agreed to a new three-year contract. However, another strike took place three years later when that contract expired.
In December 1988, ground was broke yet again, this time for a $2 million expansion program that included a $350,000 drainage project. The program would add an estimated 50 jobs to the company.
Truck-Lite cited the decline in business as the reason in 1996 when 90 employees were laid off. Most of those impacted were hourly workers. At the time, the company had about 800 employees at all of its facilities -- which had expanded to several locations in Pennsylvania and a distribution center in Sacramento, Calif.
In 1997, Truck-Lite was sold to the Detroit-based Penske Capital Partners. The company reported revenues of $86.7 million in 1996.
Truck-Lite celebrated its 50th anniversary in June 2005 with 2,400 employees at all of its facilities.