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BMW Investing Big In US Factory March 11, 2008 ) BMW's Spartanburg, South Carolina factory is growing. Click on image for larger view.
Announced yesterday, the investment of $750 million into its Spartanburg, South Carolina operation will boost annual production capacity from 160,000 to 240,000 by 2012. The factory will grow by 60 percent to over 1.2-million square feet and 500 new jobs will be created. The manufacture of BMW's X models for world markets will shift to this one spot. "Centralizing our know-how for BMW X models in Spartanburg will enable us to work even more efficiently going forward," said BMW board member Frank-Peter Arndt. "In addition, it was a logical step for the BMW Group as a global player to increase production capacity in its largest market." Included in the
Expectations have been greatly exceeded since BMW first began rolling vehicles out of Spartanburg in 1994. The aim was to create 2,000 jobs and attract nine suppliers to the area by the year 2000 — by this time employees tallied over 3,000, which in 2004 grew to over 4,600, and in 2007 swelled to over 5,400. Local suppliers number today at a whopping 52, 40 of which chose the location specifically because of the BMW plant. BMW's North American supplier network has grown from 22 in 1992 to 194 today. This latest expansion brings BMW's total Spartanburg investment up to $4.2 billion. The USA is BMW's largest single market, with sales exploding from 65,000 in 1994 to nearly 300,000 in 2007. Building vehicles here helps protect the automaker from currency fluctuations, allowing it to be more competitive. Currently the X5 Sports Activity Vehicle and Z4 sports car are built in Spartanburg. This positive news comes as BMW reduces its workforce by several thousand elsewhere, part of an overall strategic restructuring.
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