By: Summer Kelley, Staff Reporter

With automotive companies needing bailout plans, a recession underway, and industries in Dade County either closing, cutting back on hours, or laying off employees, good news for the county has been overdue.

Gill Industries announced this past week that they will be starting a new automated production line at their Trenton facility. The new line will produce steel frames for a series of utility vehicles by Club Car Inc. that targets the agricultural and outdoor recreation markets. Up to 30 frames a day can be fabricated by the Trenton facility for the XRT950 side-by-side utility vehicle.

“We are very excited to be supplying this critical component for the XRT950,” said Jacques Saint Denis, director of operations of the Trenton facility, in the recent press release. “It fits in perfectly with our mission at Trenton as a center for excellence in precision tube bending and welding.”

Gill Industries is based in Grand Rapids, Mich., and has manufacturing facilities in Trenton, Grand Rapids, and Naucalpan, Mexico. Gill also has sales offices in Paris, France, Grand Rapids and Wixom, Michigan.

The company employs almost 700 people at its headquarters and manufacturing facilities and about 115 people are employed by the Trenton facility.

Club Car, a subsidiary of Ingersoll-Rand Company, is an Augusta–based company that was founded in 1958 and manufactures golf carts an utility vehicles that are used in golf courses, colleges and universities, farms, resorts, airports, apartment complexes, and manufacturing facilities.

Peter Cervelli, Better Hometown Manager for Trenton and member of the Industrial Development Authority, said that the addition of the new line at Gill is good news in the black cloud of news that Dade County has received lately.

“This is promising news from Gill Manufacturing that we hope will help to eventually offset the recent job losses,” Cervelli said. “We look forward to Gill’s continued success.”

Gill Manufacturing said that the company does not expect the new production line to create any new jobs for the facility in the near future but that the line will help to offset projected downturns in the automotive industry.

According to Saint Denis, the new business creates a solid foundation for potential job growth in the long term and Cervelli said that the city is willing to help Gill with any future growth.