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They felt comfortable we would actually deliver here

Kauth already ships products to customers in North America. It specializes in stamped auto parts. Some are very simple, but the company has the capability to produce very complex parts that few other companies can manufacture.

“They’ve been expanding their footprint and this will be their North American headquarters.”

Photo by Nick Brancaccio / Windsor Star

The company will start out employing about 25 people in an existing warehouse built three years ago as part of the $17-million cargo hub at the airport. While Fed Ex moved its Windsor operation into one cargo hub and the Institute of Border Logistics and Security moved into another, a third warehouse building has been vacant since it was built. The German company will be leasing that building for warehouse and distribution functions, and it will build a new 100,000-square-foot manufacturing plant next door on leased Windsor Airport land.

About 300 people will be employed in the manufacturing plant, the source said.

Windsor initially learned about the company thanks to a tip from Canadian embassy staff in Berlin.

In July of 2017, Mayor Drew Dilkens and WEEDC staff travelled to Germany to convince a company to locate here. A few weeks later council approved a land offer to the company, which has visited Windsor several times.

The source said the company’s choice of Windsor is “exciting” because there were other cities from Canada and the southern U.S. competing for the plant. A city from a southern state was “throwing a lot of incentives” at the company, which ultimately decided on Windsor because of the relationship it forged with officials here and the proximity to the U.S. border.