Hester has been president of LM Manufacturing since 2019 and spent the preceding two decades in the C-suite of procurement and logistics supplier Global Automotive Alliance. He will have a 51 percent ownership position in LAN Manufacturing and supervise operations, while Magna supplies funds for the $18 million build-out of the seating facility.
Hester said the JV provides a chance to put his wide manufacturing skill-set to work while also offering 390 new employment earning an average of $900 per week with perks.
“The transition, the pivot that (Magna) made, which I thought was brilliant in terms of, ‘Hey we’re not just manufacturing car parts, we’re actually a mobility company’ — that aligned with my vision and how I think the city and also the state is trying to maintain its leadership position in those areas,” Hester said. “So to me, I saw a fantastic chance.”
The additional employment are anticipated to come with union representation, Magna said. The firm is not compelled to favor Detroit locals for the employment, but it has worked closely with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit at Work to attract individuals, Hester said.
“It’s not a prerequisite, but it’s something we appreciate,” he added. “We feel extremely powerful, very pro-Detroit. We feel that we can go obtain the skills we need from Detroit.”
Additionally, Magna and LAN Manufacturing are offering robotics workshops at a few of Detroit public high schools and seeking to form a manufacturing entrepreneurship club, Hester added.
Detroit has become a more appealing location to undertake manufacturing because of Duggan’s courtship of automakers and suppliers, access to a huge skill pool and some localization of supply chain in light of interruptions from the COVID-19 outbreak to conflict in Ukraine, Wyskiel said.
“I don’t believe anybody would have imagined all that to unfold the way it has,” he remarked. “It’ll definitely restructure to some degree the supplier community. It’ll always be a compromise between cost, making sure you have a steady supplier, and one that can sustain quality. But the equation might alter and possibly the benefit for Detroit is the closeness of very excellent tier ones and tier twos, really good leaders, really good people.”