Wentzville Planning & Zoning to Consider New Manufacturing Plant

The facility in Sachs Business Park would be a tier one supplier to the GM expansion and new product line.

Wentzville's Planning and Zoning Commission will consider a site plan for a new manufacturing facility in the M & B Sachs Business Park on Edinger Road. The new facility, if approved by the city, will be a tier one supplier to General Motors' new product line, city documents report. A tier one supplier, according to Answers.Ask.com, is "a manufacturer who is very high on a company’s chain of suppliers. A manufacturer at tier 1 status would communicate directly with the client, rather than other manufacturers." The website Tier One Parts adds that such a designation "establishes both the credibility and commitment required by global automotive manufacturers of their closest business partners trusted to design, develop and validate the …

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GM Investment Rating Should Improve, CEO Says

The car company's rating dropped to "junk bond" status in 2005.

Dan Akerson, General Motors CEO, said that he foresees GM's return to an investment-grade rating, FoxBusiness.com reported Wednesday. Akerson said that he hoped to see the company earn an "A" rating, considered medium credit quality, by the middle of the decade. The improved rating would mean lower interest rates for the company. GM dropped to a "junk bond," below investment-grade rating in 2005, years before its bankruptcy in 2009. Bond rating companies such as Standard & Poor's assign the different designations, ranging from "AAA" (high quality) to "CCC" (low quality, or junk bonds), according to Investopedia.com Akerson said that he expected increased sales in 2013, as the company rolls out 13 new or "refreshed" models in the U.S. No …

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Gov. Nixon Cheered by GM Workers During Wentzville Visit

Gov. Jay Nixon spent a few minutes in Wentzville Tuesday morning, meeting with GM workers at a local restaurant.

Gov. Jay Nixon stopped by Wentzville Tuesday morning for a brief visit with GM workers at Pete's Drive-In. Nixon shook hands around the room and spoke to workers about his work to bring jobs to Missouri with a "targeted package" for the expansion of the auto industry. "The legislature didn't get it done the first time, so I brought them back for a special session, but I did not pay them time-and-a-half for the extra session," Nixon joked. Nixon said that with the $1.1 billion Ford expansion in Kansas City and the $380 million GM expansion in Wentzville, there was never a question in his mind that the workers of the Show-Me State could deliver a competitive product. Nixon later answered questions from reporters about Dave Spence, his …

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FOX2 Video: Wentzville GM to Produce New Canyon Model Trucks

The Canyon will join the Colorado pickups that will be produced when the plant's expansion is complete.

  Fox2 News reported last week that the Wentzville GM plant will be producing a revamped GMC Canyon pickup truck in addition to the all new GMC Colorado. A GM press release stated that: GMC also announced the return of the GMC Canyon midsize pickup as an all-new model to be built in Wentzville, Mo. Arrival timing will be announced later. “While we continue to make strong progress in fuel economy gains on our full-size trucks, we know that there is a group of customers who want the functionality of a truck but may not need full-size pickup,” said Tony DiSalle, vice president of Buick and GMC Marketing. “We believe that introducing a new, agile and efficient mid-size Canyon will meet the needs of many pickup buyers.” GM recently held a …

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What Will GM’s Wentzville-Made Colorado Truck Be Like?

Get to know the latest car that will be created in Wentzville with the recent General Motors’ plant expansion.

Last Monday, posters of GM’s new 2013 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck were spread around the site of the groundbreaking ceremony of the Wentzville GM plant’s expansion. The $380 million expansion will create over 1600 jobs, out of which 1,260 will be dedicated to the construction of the next-generation Colorado. But what’s that truck like? (Read previous story: GM's Wentzville Expansion to Create Over 1600 Jobs) Born in Thailand The Colorado pickup truck was first released in 2004, replacing the smaller S-10 truck, according to edmunds.com, an online car dealership. The truck was designed in a partnership between GM's North American operations, GM's Brazil operations and Isuzu, a Japanese vehicle-manufacturing company. The new-generation …

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GM's Wentzville Expansion to Create Over 1600 Jobs

Governor Nixon spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony held in Wentzville's GM assembly plant.

Wentzville Mayor Nick Guccione said he only had three words to describe how excited he was about the groundbreaking ceremony of General Motor’s Wentzville assembly plant expansion: “Jobs, jobs, jobs,” Guccione said. The 500,000 square-foot annex to the Wentzville plant was inaugurated last Tuesday morning at a ceremony in the future site of the new facility, which will house GM’s new production line of a redesigned  Colorado pickup truck as well as add a second shift of workers to produce GM’s Chevrolet Express and the GMC Savana vans. Gov. Jay Nixon, who attended the ceremony, said the expansion will create 1,660 new manufacturing jobs. “It is absolutely no accident that the rebirth of the American auto-industry is occurring right here,” …

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GM Expansion Construction on Planning and Zoning's Agenda

New structures and roads would help build the planned GM plant addition.

Post-Dispatch Gets Inside Look at Wentzville's GM Plant

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch featured a photo slideshow of the Wentzville General Motors plant on Saturday.

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GM Ditching Pension Plans for 401(k) Contributions

Change will effect nearly 75 percent of GM's salaried workforce.

General Motors is getting rid of its annual pension contribution system for its employees. In its place, future retirement contribution will be made into a 401(k) plan, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. As part of the plan, salaried GM workers will also not be given a raise this year, but will get an additional week of vacation, the report says. Overall, the change will effect nearly 75 percent of the company's 26,000 salaried workforce. The Wentzville plant currently employs about 1,400 people and by the time the new General Motors facility opens in 2014, that figure could rise to as many as 3,000. How many of the current Wentzville workers are on salary is not known. The pension change go into effect in October and will only apply to…

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Gov. Nixon Touts 'Missouri Works' Legislation at Wentzville Supplier

Legislation could provide "extra jolt to grow and attract suppliers" to Wentzville and Missouri as a whole.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said he'd like to recover thousands of auto supplier jobs lost in the recent recession while speaking at a Wentzville supplier on Thursday, KMOV reports. Nixon outlined his new plan—named Missouri Works—while at Wentzville's Lear Seating Corporation, a supplier used by General Motors plant. The new strategy, according to the governor's office, capitalizes, in part, on General Motors' investment in Wentzville by attracting new automotive suppliers to Missouri and help existing suppliers grow. From the governor's website: Automotive suppliers are located in every corner of Missouri, from Dexter to Joplin and Perryville to Troy. But as Ford and GM prepare to manufacture new products in Kansas City and Wentzville, …

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