Marcus Baur, President of BOCAR Group, speaks at the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber. (Dec. 5, 2017)

GROUNDBREAKING CERMONY SPEECH – BOCAR USA PLANT
DEC. 5, 2017
BY MARCUS BAUR, PRESIDENT, BOCAR

Welcome:

Mrs. Kay Ivey, Governor of State of Alabama
Mr. Greg Canfield, Secretary of Commerce
Mr. Tommy Battle, Mayor, City of Huntsville
Mr. Mark Yarborough, Chairman, Limestone County Commission
Mr. Joe Newberry, Chairman, Huntsville Chamber of Commerce

We are highly honoured to be here today appreciate having you here.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome:

Today we are marking the ground-breaking of construction for the first BOCAR GROUP plant in the USA. First of all, I would like to wish success to everyone who will be involved in carrying out this important project.

HISTORY
Bocar Group was founded by my living father in 1958, originally as a manufacturer of pumps and carburetors. Today, the family business is an international group with presence in Germany, Mexico, Japan and the USA.

Bocar Group is constituted by two strategic business divisions that manufactures high-quality precision parts in aluminium and plastics, from which we serve our international customer base.

All these including the high-end German manufacturing and process technology with quality that has characterized us since our start.

Today, we will reaffirm our commitment to offer the automotive industry our latest technology range of products and services, to be a development partner and a complete service provider.

IDENTITY
Ever since the firm was founded 60 years ago, our philosophy has been that delivering high quality innovative products requires a constant technological development and human competence.

Our company appeals to basic concepts that form the core of our philosophy. The “Bocar DOL principle”: discipline, order, cleanliness; this philosophy raises motivation and commitment of all associates. We see ourselves as a socially responsible company, caring for our employees as well as for the environment.

WHY HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA?
Bocar Group has a long history in the automotive business, with around 45 years delivering parts to our customers in the USA. This has allowed us to build up successful, long-standing relationships. Since many years we have felt already being at home in the USA.

To announce this ground-breaking today confirms our commitment with our customers. We want to be where they need us. We have spent two years studying this business move and over a year selecting the final site location.

We can only agree that our decision places us in the proper location for future success, principally due to our number one asset in this project, the people of this area and region.

We are taking a logical approach in our efforts to bring on board an experienced local team that along with our experts will ensure Bocar´s high quality standards and operational excellence.

We are glad to invest in Huntsville, Alabama, because the site fits all our requirements, workforce is available, AIDT and its training program are excellent, the local team as well as the State have been very supportive and helpful.

Furthermore, Huntsville offers a great quality of life with good infrastructure, talented people and a host of excellent universities that will develop our business while contributing positively to the social and economic development of this community.

Our company is driven by technology and quality, and our extensive experience gives us the confidence that this represents only an initial step in our collaboration and that we will keep growing together with this community we are glad to become part of.

READY TO CONFRONT CHALLENGE
With our first plant in the USA we are sure that BOCAR GROUP is ready to face the challenges of the worldwide automotive industry. We are consolidating our international presence by increasing our competitive advantage and achieving a major impact and innovation.

Big changes are coming up in our industry: connectivity, autonomous, sheared and electric vehicles will have an important impact in our business.

CLOSING
I’m sure that our partners and customers also understand the advantages of being here in the State of Alabama; from where we will provide the best service to fulfil their needs and so continue to expand and invest in the USA.

And I am also excited that with this new plant, we will open yet another chapter in the BOCAR success story.

Finally, we want to express our deepest appreciation for the support you have offered to this project, and we rely on it to remain growing successfully together. We want to grow the relationship with each one of you.

And I would like to thank the authorities of Limestone County, City of Huntsville and the State of Alabama for supporting BOCAR in all our needs and requests to make this project feasible and successful in such a short time. And I also would like to congratulate all of us on this landmark event for our company.

Thank you