Foster Electric to expand El Paso operations, create new positions

The Borderplex Alliance and Foster Electric announced the company plans to expand its existing operations in El Paso with the goal of creating about 40 new positions by 2020.

Foster Electric, a leading global automotive supplier, manufactures auto speaker systems for US and Japanese automakers.

Jose Rangel, with the company, said Foster Electric chose El Paso “because of its skilled labor force, its central location and excellent logistics.”

Foster Electric started as a logistics center, importing speaker systems for US and Japanese automakers and shifting 40 million units a year, Rangel said. In 2009, it started production of speaker systems in El Paso. “Due to the success, we decided to expand our operations by investing in a brand new speaker production system in El Paso,” Rangel said.

The goal is to start production in El Paso in 2020 with the hope of producing 6-million units a year, Rangel added. “This is a win-win situation for all parties involved, including our customers, who will receive products assembled in the US,” Rangel said.

The new positions will pay $30,000 a year, officials said.

John Barela, with the Borderplex Alliance, praised City and County leaders for their pro-growth and pro-business agenda.

“We can’t do the things that we do without the work that they do,” Barela said, adding the Borderland region, including El Paso and Juarez, is now the fourth largest manufacturing hub in North America. The region just surpassed Detroit, which Barela described as a great accomplishment.

Foster Electric is located in City Representative Claudia Ordaz’s district six in Far East El Paso. Ordaz said the company has worldwide operations and had many choices when it came to expansion, but it decided to expand in El Paso.

“We’re seeing tremendous growth in El Paso and El Paso is becoming a thriving place to live and work,” Ordaz said, adding El Paso’s unemployment rate of 3.9 percent is at an all time low. “If companies like Foster Electric prosper, the City of El Paso prospers,” the city representative said.

El Paso County Commissioner Carlos Leon praised the Borderplex Alliance, as well as the City and County of El Paso, for focusing on businesses already in El Paso at the same time they work to recruit new businesses to the region.

“Sometimes, we lose focus on the businesses who are already here,” Leon said, “Those 40 new positions they are creating could have gone to Mexico, but they will be created here in El Paso.”