The HÜBNER business in the USA continues to expand: After securing a major order to supply the New York City Subway with gangway systems last year, the HÜBNER Group now has plans to build a new factory for the manufacture of elastomer products in the southeastern United States. HÜBNER General Manager Ingolf Cedra, responsible for HÜBNER's Material Solutions business segment, made the official announcement during a visit to the production site location in Dunlap, Tennessee. Also present for the announcement were Bill Lee, Governor of Tennessee and Dwain Land, Mayor of Dunlap.
With this new initiative, each of HÜBNER’s three business segments – Mobility, Material Solutions and Photonics – will now have its own U.S. location for the development of North American business. In Mount Pleasant in the neighboring state of South Carolina, the company has been producing gangway systems since 1995 for the American mobility market. HÜBNER is the worldwide leading company for gangway systems for buses and railway vehicles. In San José, California, the business segment HÜBNER Photonics has a sales and service location for its laser business.
The facility in Dunlap, not far from Tennessee’s borders to Georgia and South Carolina, will produce all of the elastomer molded parts, silicone seals as well as sensor-equipped rubber profiles for the rapidly expanding U.S. bus and train industries from 2020 onwards. The HÜBNER Group has set itself the goal of becoming the worldwide market leader for door sealing and safety systems in the railway and bus segments – already having the largest market share for these segments throughout Europe. In addition, the new location will also supply the U.S. oil and gas industry with various sealing systems.
"We want to be able to serve the strong growth in the American mobility market directly from here in the U.S.," explained Cedra in reference to the recent investment decision. "Our European customers have also increased their presence in the USA and they want to be supplied on site with the same level of quality that they are accustomed to in Europe." The HÜBNER General Manager thanked the Governor of Tennessee for his support in the production site search process: "In addition to the site’s relative proximity of our main customers – the large bus and train manufacturers – which we can conveniently reach from here, the excellent general conditions of Tennessee as a location were an important factor in our choice," remarked Cedra.
"In the coming weeks we'll already be getting started with the construction work here in Dunlap," said Ron Paquette, Managing Director of HÜBNER Manufacturing Corporation in Mount Pleasant, looking ahead to the upcoming schedule for the erection of the new factory. "The start of production is planned for the first quarter of 2020 and will then be brought up to speed step by step." In the first phase, a workforce of up to 50 employees is planned. The HÜBNER Group already employs more than 100 persons in the USA.
