Ice Industries Receives 2005 Master Quality Award From Auto Supplier Yorozu
GRENADA, Miss., April 25, 2006 – Ice Industries, a leading metal stamping and machining company, today announced it received a 2005 Master Quality Award from leading automotive supplier Yorozu America Corporation.
Yorozu recognized Ice Industries for providing outstanding quality during 2005 for products manufactured at the Ice Industries Grenada Stamping and Assembly plant (Grenada, Miss.). In order for Ice Industries to achieve such a prestigious award, the company must satisfy quality standards set by Yorozu in different categories, including quality, delivery, cost and engineering response time.
“Being recognized by one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers for the caliber of work being done by our Grenada Stamping plant is an incredible honor for the employees at Grenada, and for the entire company,” said Howard Ice, Chairman & CEO, Ice Industries. “Ice Industries is honored to receive this award from Yorozu and looks forward to continued success in 2006.”
The Yorozu award is the latest in a series of important developments for the Ice Grenada Stamping and Assembly plant. In recent months, the plant has expanded its relationship with Yorozu, acquiring additional stamping work that was done previously in Mexico and Japan.
In addition, the Ice Grenada plant provides parts to Nissan North America.
The Ice Grenada plant also finalized a relationship this month with PK U.S.A., an automotive supplier that manufactures a variety of vehicle parts for Nissan and Subaru. The agreement calls for Ice to produce an additional 36 parts in Grenada.
To accommodate the new business, Ice Industries recently made a significant equipment investment. The company purchased three 1,000-ton presses and two 600-ton presses. The new equipment gives the Ice Grenada plant the ability to increase its capacity and expand the types of parts it can produce.
Because of the new relationships, Ice plans to hire additional employees for its second shift and open a third shift. This will result in an additional 40 to 60 employees at the Grenada facility.
Grenada Stamping and Assembly is a 400,000 square-foot manufacturing facility with capabilities that include metal stamping, roll forming, manual and robotic welding, buffing, assembly and packing. Ice Industries acquired Grenada Stamping and Assembly on March 30, 2005.
The former company saw significant financial hardship in recent years, bringing into question the plant’s long-term viability. Ice Industries acquired the former Grenada Stamping and Assembly operations in early 2005. During that time, Ice Industries has helped to revitalize the business, including establishing relationships with Yorozu and another automotive supplier.
Ice Industries provides cost-effective, efficient metal fabrication, stamping and sub-assembly solutions that allow manufacturers to focus their resources on research, development, marketing, engineering and final assembly by offloading stamping and sub-assembly work.
About Ice Industries
Ice Industries is a metal stamping and machining company based in Sylvania, Ohio. The company has three facilities: Acklin Stamping in Toledo; Deerfield Manufacturing in Mason, Ohio and Grenada Stamping & Assembly in Grenada, Miss. The company works with leaders in the automotive, appliance and heat transfer/HVACR industries. For more information, please visit http://www.iceindustries.com.