Tokyo-based Foster Electric plans to add an automotive speaker factory to its East El Paso distribution facility in 2020 and create 40 new jobs, company officials announced Monday.

It will be the company's only speaker factory in North America, and will be the most technologically advanced among the company's speaker factories, a company official said.

The company currently employs 32 people at its distribution facility at 1216 Don Haskins Drive.

The international company, with annual sales of $1.3 billion, supplies speakers to almost all auto manufacturers, and also makes other audio equipment, a company official said.

Foster Electric chose to bring speaker manufacturing to El Paso, "not only because it is the largest economic and commercial zone along the border area, but because of its skilled labor force, its central location and excellent logistics; its business resources and the character of its community," Jose Rangel, Foster's vice president of El Paso operations, said at a press conference held by the Borderplex Alliance, the regional economic development organization based in El Paso.

This is the second manufacturing company to announce an expansion in El Paso in recent weeks. Ireland-based Eaton Corp., announced in November that it will open a West El Paso factory in 2019 with 200 jobs. It will make switchboards for large electrical distribution systems, and other electrical products. Eaton is to get $878,765 in city and county tax and fee rebates and job-training grant for the facility.

More: Eaton Corp., with three Juárez factories, to add 200 jobs with West El Paso plant

Tax rebates didn't seal deal

Foster Electric will get $286,633 in city and county tax rebates over 10 years if it meets all requirements, including investing at least $4.25 million in its El Paso facility, and creating at least 40 new jobs by 2022, according to city and county economic development agreements approved Monday by City Council and County Commissioners Court.

The tax rebates “didn’t really play a part in our decision, but after we made the decision it was very helpful to see the city and county wanted to support us" with the incentives, Eugene Fraczkowski, chief financial officer for Foster Electric USA, said after the news conference. The U.S. company, based in the Chicago area, is a subsidiary of Foster Electric.

The city also will give the company a construction permit fee rebate of up to $10,000.

Besides the required $4.25 million investment, which will be for equipment, the company also plans to spend about $1 million to upgrade its El Paso facility, Fraczkowski said.

Jobs to pay $30,000 to $90,000 a year

The jobs, which will include equipment operators, material handlers, technicians, and engineers, will pay salaries ranging from about $30,000 to $90,000 per year, Rangel said.

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The company must pay the county median wage set each January, but cannot pay lower than the $13.50 per hour median wage set for this year, according to the economic development agreements.

Rangel said Foster Electric already knows El Paso because it's been operating a successful distribution center here for 20 years.

"We know that El Paso has talented, skilled, hard-working, honest people, and we have management already established here," Rangel said.

The company has been operating a small speaker assembly plant in its El Paso distribution center since 2009, Rangel said. But the new manufacturing lines, which will use robotics and other advanced technological equipment, will make automotive speakers, he said.

It now assembles about 700,000 speakers a year in El Paso. The new factory lines will manufacture about 6 million speakers a year, Rangel said.

Foster Electric has 13 factories, most of them in Asia and South America, Fraczkowski said. It operated a factory in Juarez from 1993 to 2009, he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

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