Subaru supplier investing $111M, adding 114 jobs in Madison County

Japan-based auto parts supplier ELSA Corp. on Monday morning announced a $111 million, 114-job expansion of its Madison County factory to support growth at the Subaru plant in Lafayette.

The Subaru plant, which opened in 1989, now employs 5,500. The automaker invested $1.4 billion and added 1,400 employees to support the launch of production of the Impreza, the first of which rolled off the assembly line last week. Other vehicles made at the factory, the automaker's only plant in North America, include the Outback and Legacy.

“The impact of Subaru’s historic investment in Lafayette is being felt across the state,” Gov. Mike Pence said in a statement. “As Subaru launched production of the new Impreza last week, auto suppliers across the state like ELSA are expanding and creating quality new jobs for Hoosiers."

ELSA, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sakamoto Industries, already employs 350 in the Madison County city of Elwood. It is expanding its campus there to 686,000 square feet spread across multiple buildings. Last fall, the company completed a 131,000-square-foot addition. As part of the expansion, ELSA is adding lines to produce fuel tanks, exhaust systems, air cleaners and air ducts for Subaru.

“As Indiana’s automotive industry grows, so does ELSA,” Kyle Bubp, accounting manager at ELSA, said in a statement. “Japanese automakers across the state are each ramping up production, and that’s put us in a position where we need a larger workforce to meet demand."
  
The 29-year-old company, which had sales last year of $311 million, also makes parts for the Toyota plant in the southwestern Indiana city of Princeton.
 
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered ELSA up to $500,000 in tax credits in an incentive deal covering 83 of the new positions. The credits are performance-based, meaning the company can't claim them until workers are hired. The city of Elwood will consider granting additional incentives at a meeting Monday night.