Stimulus funds provide a boost for American Seating Company in Grand Rapids
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - The economic stimulus package is working for one West Michigan company. Orders are climbing at American Seating and in the future the company might be adding jobs.
The federal government recently announced federal stimulus grants to spend $55 million for transit. Some of that money is filtering down to American Seating, in Grand Rapids, which makes seats for busses.
About 60% of American Seating’s business is in making seats for the transportation industry. That portion of the business is entering an upswing, thanks to federal dollars.
Right now, American Seating is making seats for busses in Baltimore, Maryland. Public transit authorities all around the country are receiving federal stimulus money. Dave McLaughlin, Vice President and General Sales Manager for American Seating says, “It’s made it easier for transit authorities across the country to buy busses.”
The Muskegon Area Transit System just received a grant that will allow them to buy two new busses, and will help pay off the five new busses purchased earlier this year.
Grand Haven Harbor Transit will also buy three new busses thanks to stimulus money.
Some of the bus seats are made in Grand Rapids, at American Seating. McLaughlin says, “We have seen some impact. We probably have built 75 or 80 busses worth of seats, year to date, that we normally wouldn’t have provided.”
McLaughlin says the company usually makes three or four thousand sets of bus seats a year. For the next couple years, he expects that could climb to six-thousand. He says, “The volume really hasn’t trickled down yet. But it’s coming, there’s no question about it.”
American Seating has been working below capacity, so they haven’t had to hire more workers yet. But, McLaughlin thinks they will have to hire a significant number of additional workers in the future. He says, “It’s consistent with what the stimulus package was trying to do and that is create jobs, preserve jobs, and make the needed additions to the infrastructure. Public transit investment fits that bill just perfectly.” Adding American jobs all along the way.
American Seating is not the only West Michigan company that will benefit from the transit portion of the federal stimulus money. SAF Holland on the lakeshore makes suspension parts that go into these kinds of busses.