Lear Corporation - Introduction

Introduction

21557 Telegraph Road
Southfield, Michigan 48034-4248
U.S.A.
Telephone: (248) 447-1500
Fax: (248) 447-1722
Web site: http://www.lear.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1917 as American Metal Products Company
Employees: 110,000
Sales: $16.96 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: LEA
NAIC: 336360 Motor Vehicle Seating and Interior Trim Manufacturing; 336322 Other Motor Vehicle Electrical and Electronic Equipment Manufacturing

Lear Corporation is the world's leading supplier of automotive interior systems. The company ranks first worldwide in seat systems, second in flooring and acoustic systems and door panels, third in headliners and electrical and electronic distribution systems, and seventh in instrument panels. Of the company's more than 270 facilities located in 34 countries, 165 are involved in production/manufacturing, 52 in administration/technical support, and 45 in assembly. Lear also maintains six advanced technology centers and three distribution centers. Increasingly global in operation, Lear generates about 44 percent of its sales in North America, a significant change from the mid-1990s when North America accounted for more than two-thirds of revenues. Although Lear relies on two clients, car-making giants General Motors Corporation and Ford Motor Company (and their respective affiliates), for about 56 percent of its sales, the company's interior systems can be found on more than 300 vehicle nameplates worldwide. Following a management-led leveraged buyout in 1988, Lear's sales grew from less than $200 million to more than $12.4 billion by 1999, as the company broadened its geographic reach and expanded its product line to encompass the full gamut of the automobile interior. Seventeen major acquisitions completed between 1994 and 1999 were instrumental in Lear's rise to its globally dominant position.