When it was announced July 17 that SLPT Global Pump Group is in the process of being purchased, foremost on Jeff Addison’s mind was how the transaction would affect the more than 150 full-time and temporary employees at the Sallisaw facility.
“Without a doubt, it’s an impact to our employees, and that, for us, is very much first and foremost on our mind,” says Addison, who is vice president and general manager for North America and Europe operations. “Certainly the employees are asking, ‘What does this mean to me?’ Of course we’re very concerned about that, too.
“I think for a lot of employees, it is very emotional. I think for some of them, they see it as an opportunity for growth of this facility, that the new company coming in might have the potential to really expand it and add more jobs.
“I think there are other employees here that are certainly sad, and for me, it’s very emotional and I’m sad for them. We have some employees that have been here more than 40 years, and they’ve seen the name change a couple of times,” Addison says.
“I’m sure there’ll be information out there, and I don’t want the community to think we’re hiding from talking about it. We’ve been part of this community for a long time. Even before this was SLPT and when it was BorgWarner, a lot of employees that work here are former BorgWarner employees. I’m a former BorgWarner employee. I was very proud to come over and work for SLPT, but a lot of employees have a lot of deep roots in the building and in the business. The name has changed, but the employees have been the cornerstone and the rock.”
The announcement by Shenglong Automotive Powertrain System Co. Ltd., a leading company in the combustion engine and electric vehicle market headquartered in Ningbo, is that it has entered into a framework agreement with Millison Technology Co. Ltd., which is headquartered in Chongqing. Both companies are in China.
“The two companies — SLPT and Millison — have signed a document to say ‘let’s explore this deal and see if we can carry it through.’ That’s why they call it a framework agreement,” Addison explains. “It kinda sets the outline of both companies where we want to go. Through the due diligence, if Millison sees everything they would like — which I’m sure they will, I don’t know why they wouldn’t — then the expectation is, by the end of the year, the official transaction of transferring the ownership from us to Millison would happen.”
Change isn’t easy
Addison admits the transition, no matter how seamless, comes with a certain amount of angst.
“It’s a change, and I don’t care who you are, including me, change is not easy,” he says. “Our employees, we have to give them a lot of support and help them through this. We’re certainly having a lot of discussions with them, both formal and informal. We need to do all we can to help them.
“There’s that short-term transition between when we are moving out and the new owner is moving in, there’s that transition period,” Addison observes. “Like anything, you learn to work for a new company, you learn what the new processes are. The new company has to get themselves established and bring their equipment in, and they’re gonna be looking for probably more technological people than what we had, and I think that’s a good thing, ’cause those are higher paying jobs.
“The positive is that the building and product have continued on even though the names have changed, which will be the case with Millison. Some of these employees, this is their way of life when it comes to working. They know what they do when they come in, and I think, generally, they enjoy where they’re working at, competitive wage and good benefits.”
Then he reassures those who may have lingering doubts.
“There’s a lot of people probably wondering what’s gonna happen, what’s happening with SLPT. I think we’re a good employer in the area. We’ve been here for many years, and we want this facility to continue to be here for many years,” Addison says.
“We’re not closing the facility. We’ve found an opportunity with a buyer that can use the facility better than we would be, and we have an opportunity to consolidate. I think at the end of the day, for both companies and for the employees, the end result will end up being good.”
The sale of the Sallisaw property and building is a strategic action by SLW Automotive to focus the geographic footprint of the North America operations and grow the electric vehicle business. SLW Automotive recently acquired a design, development and manufacturing location in Warren, Mich., to be closer to strategic customers, says Leo Yulong, chairman of Shenglong Automotive Powertrain System Co.
The Sallisaw and Warren locations are SLPT’s only North American sites.
Coming to America
“Millison has interest in coming to the United States, and knowing that we’re going to be underutilizing this facility with the facility we purchased in Michigan, they approached us and said, ‘Hey, we know you have this facility. Are you interested, can we take a look at it?’,” Addison explains.
“Right now we’re in the process of what’s called due diligence to see if they’re interested to take over the facility. One of the things that we said we would do as part of that assistance to take over and start a manufacturing site here in the U.S., not just the land and the building, but we’d also help them by also including in the agreement some limited manufacturing. So it helps get them running, and also for us, we’re going to consolidate a little bit.
“It works out for both, because this company that’s coming in is going to do aluminum die casting and machining, which is an input to us, so as we create a strategic partnership while we’re doing this transaction, they can also be a very good supplier to us in the future. So there’s kind of a lot of bits and pieces that come together here,” Addison says.
“The positive is that the company that we’re selling this to really wants to see growth. They wanna do expansion, they want to bring jobs to the area,” Addison reassures. “They’re already working with the local chamber, Sequoyah County, they’re working with the Oklahoma economic development communities. So they have in their mind that they also plan to grow.
“We know that for our employees, it’s a change, an emotional change, and we 100 percent need to help them through that.”
Addison then focuses on the opportunities for employees who may be interested in becoming part of the Michigan acquisition.
“We actually need some of our employees to move to Michigan. Because as we move some of our business to Michigan, we don’t really have that deep knowledge our employees here have as to what they do every day.
Deep knowledge needed
“Almost every job that we’re gonna have in Michigan we’re gonna post down here,” Addison says. “If employees wanna move to Michigan — which, I know, it’s not the greatest come winter — but if an employee wants to move to Michigan, we’re gonna seriously consider that also, because we need that deep knowledge to move with the product as it moves.
“We’ll be relocating some of the manufacturing we do here to Michigan,” Addison reveals. “At the same time, Millison will be bringing in their own manufacturing, which, from a technical standpoint, they’re going to need people that have technical backgrounds, experience in tool and die, experience in running equipment — no different than what we had, but they may have it even more. So I think there’ll be some opportunities for the trade schools, ICTC (Indian Capital Technical Center), people like that, to really help Millison as they come in in terms of what kind of talent they need and how do we create apprenticeship programs and things of that nature. I think that’s something that the area could certainly use. We need to be bringing more manufacturing back to the U.S., so I’m really happy to see Millison putting operations here in the U.S.
“I also believe that we don’t have enough of our traditional technical skills and capabilities that have, over time, migrated away from the U.S., simply because the business we’ve been doing offshore. I think this is symbolic of what we’ve seen in the past four to six years with a lot of things that have come about, either through the pandemic or through, certainly, political regulations and laws,” Addison says. “I think this is some of the output of it in terms of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S., and bringing back some of that known technology and skillset we’ve lost. I think the challenge we have today in the U.S. is how do we build that skillset back up, especially in the tool and die area, skill trades, electricians, mechanics, maintenance people. Those positions are so critical to us in the U.S.”
About Millison
Millison Technology Co. was founded in 2001, and currently has more than 5,000 employees worldwide. The company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of aluminum alloy precision die castings in the communication and automotive fields, with three major production bases in China.
Also under the Millison umbrella are domestic mold research and development, manufacturing centers, fully automatic intelligent die casting islands, high-precision machine centers, automatic refrigerant filling lines, automatic powder spraying lines and precision quality inspection systems. The company has established long-term strategic partnerships with multiple Fortune 500 companies, and its products are exported to multiple countries in the Asia Pacific, Europe and the U.S. The company is preparing to build factories in Europe and the U.S. to meet the needs of foreign customers.
Well-known customers of Millison include Tesla, Ericsson and others. In 2022, the company’s annual output value reached 3 billion yuan ($418 million U.S.). It is listed on ChiNext, a NASDAQ-style subsidiary of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
Because of Millison’s leading role in aluminum machining, which is pervasive not only in the automotive industry but also in non-automotive applications, the change in company ownership may not be what many would consider business as usual.
“We do a small amount of aluminum machining, but that’s not where our core focus is,” Addison points out. “Millison, that is what they do, they do aluminum die casting and machining, that is something that they do as their core focus.
“They see reasons for growth. So I think it will definitely be business as an ongoing business versus the business shrinking, because we would be doing more in Michigan, and I see that as a positive,” Addison says.
“But I do also see there’ll be a point in time as we are, say, moving our current production to Michigan and the new company hasn’t completely moved some of their business in yet, there’ll be a bit of a wave, if you will, of either a reduction or increase of workforce. What I have heard is they have some pretty strategic plans for growing the business here.”
While the expected acquisition of SLPT is Millison’s first footprint in the U.S., the business has been in Sallisaw since 2009, and the facility on Buddy Spencer Avenue (Opdyke Street) has been at that site since the 1950s.
While the history of the business is in the automotive industry, there’s now a big move toward the electric vehicle, Addison says.
“We’ve got a real big push on ‘how do we take our mechanical products and electrify them?’ We’re currently in the pump technology business where we do pumping fluids for such as oil pumps and transfer case pumps, and with the EV, there certainly is a very strong need for that type of technology.
“So what we have an opportunity to do is get closer on that EV technology, but a lot of that is happening closer to where the technology development centers are, and we want to bring our product engineers closer to manufacturing, hence the reason why we decided to open a new facility in Michigan with design and development, and also some manufacturing space,” he explains. Addison says both the Oklahoma and Michigan operations will be virtually the same, “with the plan of continuing to grow as we get into the EV technology in the auto industry.”
Once the change in ownership occurs, Addison says signage at the Sallisaw facility will change from SLPT to Millison.
