The Korean-based company plans to bring a job fair to the Grand Rapids area next week in hopes of finding more candidates.
HOLLAND, MI - The 4-year-old LG Chem advanced battery plant will add another 100 employees this year as it brings on a new automotive customer as part of a $25 million plant expansion, a company official said Thursday, June 25.
The Korean-based company plans to bring a job fair to the Grand Rapids area next week in hopes of finding more candidates, said Jeremy Hagemeyer, the plant's human resources manager.
The Holland plant, which produces lithium ion battery cells for General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet Volt and Cadillac ELR hybrid vehicles, will begin producing battery cells and assembling battery packs for its new customer later this year, said Hagemeyer.
Hagemeyer said the new non-GM customer cannot be identified at this point. The pack assembly line is a new function for the plant. GM assembles its own packs for the Volt and ELR in southeast Michigan.
"It's an exciting time at LG Chem, it's great to see more equipment coming in," Hagemeyer said. The plant on the east side of Holland is running two shifts and plans to add a third shift later this year, he said.
LG Chem, which employs 231 workers, has hired 100 employees in the past 90 days and plans to bring on 100 more by the end of the year, Hagemeyer said.
A Grand Rapids job fair will be held Tuesday, June 30, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Crossroad Conference Center, 6569 Clay Avenue SW, Wyoming. More than 500 applicants have attended the company's previous three job fairs, Hagemeyer said.
Hagemeyer said many of the job fair attendees are employed elsewhere and hope to take advantage of the company's working conditions and benefits. LG Chem has been offering starting wages of $13 an hour for technical operators, he said.
The company also has posted openings for electrical engineers, maintenance technicians, production engineers, purchasing analysts, quality assurance engineers.
Built at a cost of $303 million, the 600,000-square-foot plant has been producing battery cells for nearly two years after a rocky start.
After training its workforce in 2011, the company did not begin production as demand for the Volt faltered. Rather than laying off its workforce, LG Chem kept most of them on the payroll as they cleaned equipment, played board games, watched movies, and volunteered in the community.
In 2013, the U.S. Auditor General investigated the plant and asked LG Chem to repay $842,000 of its $151 million federal stimulus grant. The company also paid $1.231 million to resolve allegations that the company used federal funds to pay workers for recreational and volunteer activities.
The sprawling white factory is one of two advanced battery plants in the area. Johnson Controls Inc. also operates an advanced battery plant several miles west of the LG Chem plant.
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Jim Harger covers business for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at jharger@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook or Google+.