By David Veselenak, O&E Media
Add one more company moving its global headquarters to Livonia. This time, it’s a company that already has a strong presence in the city.
ZF North American, based in Northville, announced during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week it plans on moving east to Livonia. ZF Group bought the former Livonia-based TRW about a year ago for more than $12 billion.
The auto parts supplier, which focuses on drive line and chassis technology, as well as autonomous driving technologies, will move into the former TRW headquarters, 12001 Tech Center Dr., in Livonia.
The move will allow employees who work closely with others in similar divisions the opportunity to be closer to one another, said Bryan Johnson, head of corporate communications for ZF North America.
“We’re going to name the Livonia location the headquarters for the region for the global group,” said Johnson, a Canton resident. “It really provides us with the opportunity to bring certain areas of the business together.
“In Livonia, we already had a global operation, so we had a good infrastructure in place for that. And in Northville, it was more of a regional group.”
A transition team will evaluate needs over the next six months and it could take 18-24 months to completely transition from the Northville site to Livonia.
The Livonia office has about 1,200 employees, while the Northville office has about 400; both have employees coming from across the region. No new construction or building enhancements are expected to the current Livonia office to accommodate the move.
The Northville facility will continue to be used, mostly as a sales and engineering facility. The number of employees at each location is not expected to change immediately, though it could in the future with more hiring planned for the company.
“Once we can move out of the corporate people, we already have open positions,” Johnson said. “We’re hiring at both locations.”
The company is the latest in the past year to move its headquarters to Livonia. Taylor-based Masco Corp. announced last summer it would move its world headquarters to Livonia in a brand-new building at Schoolcraft College. That project broke ground in the fall and is expected to wrap up work sometime this year.
John Wilkerson, a senior communications manager with ZF TRW, said with the company being in Livonia since 1993, it has built a strong report with many local entities, including local government and education.
“We have a really good relationship with the school system in Livonia, with the city,” said Wilkerson, who said he formerly sat on the Livonia Chamber of Commerce board. “It’s been an excellent place to work. It has a great location in the metro area, very centrally located. It’s been a really good relationship and it’s something we certainly want to continue.”
dveselenak@hometownlife.com | 734-678-6728 Twitter: @DavidVeselenak
No comments:
Post a Comment