Conti Receives Local Help to Remain Competitive in US

Local government is giving the Continental Teves brake facility in the US state of North Carolina a helping hand in order to help it remain competitive. On October 19 Henderson County agreed to give Conti $32,150 next year – an amount equalling 80 per cent of the company’s annual property tax – and up to that amount for each of the following four years, and the Town of Fletcher will give the manufacturer exactly half this amount.

Continental sought economic incentives to help secure new contracts, in particular with Daimler and Chrysler to manufacture brake callipers for the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Durango and Dakota and the Mercedes M Class vehicles. The funding will enable the Teves plant to create 35 new jobs. “We in the automotive industry are competing on a worldwide basis,” said plant manager Bobby Nelon. “It’s absolutely necessary we come together as a community and industry so the Town of Fletcher and county of Henderson can continue to prosper.”

Conti, on its part, has agreed not only to create the 35 aforementioned jobs, but to also invest $8.6 million in new plant equipment, and anticipates that the new output will be leaving the facility by 2010. The agreement has been described by Fletcher mayor Bill Moore as “a good example of local governments and local industry working together.”