French auto & aerospace manufacturer taps Grand Rapids for first North American Innovation Center

By Anna Gustafson, Managing Editor | Thursday, January 28, 2016

Hutchinson Cedric Duclos, Hutchinson North America President & CEO

As the auto industry hit a downward spiral of historic proportions about eight years ago, Hutchinson, a global automotive and aerospace innovator and manufacturer, was, like companies across the world, faced with an economy in which they were hemorrhaging major money.

Hutchinson’s Grand Rapids site, which has been operating in the city for 30 years and which was previously known as Paulstra CRC, “was in bad shape, losing millions (of dollars),” says Cedric Duclos, Hutchinson North America president and CEO.

“I was sent here to find solutions; we knew the easy way was to shut it down,” Duclos says of his arrival in Grand Rapids. “But that’s not the right choice. You have so much talent and experience here.”

Hutchinson, which employs about 300 people in Grand Rapids and operates 96 sites in 23 countries across the globe, did not leave the city — instead, it stayed, and the company is now in a far different position than the one in which it previously found itself. Last Wednesday, Hutchinson debuted its North American Innovation Center, also known as the 616 Fab House, which occupies 13,400 square feet of a renovated 100-year-old factory at 460 Fuller Ave. NE.

“We’re here eight years later and are a leader in this market,” Duclos says at the 616 Fab House’s grand opening on January 20, which was attended by more than 170 guests, including Hutchinson Global President & CEO Jacques Maigne, The Right Place Inc. President & CEO Birgit Klohs, and state and city leaders.

The space is the company’s second innovation center; its first, 507 Fab House, was designed by the legendary Gustave Eiffel and is located near Hutchinson’s Paris world headquarters. Housed in a factory that was once the Corduroy Rubber Co., which made parts for Detroit’s auto industry, the Grand Rapids venue was chosen because of “its central location to major clients and vendors” and is dedicated to “research, development and innovative thinking for all of Hutchinson’s divisions,” according to Hutchinson.

The Fuller Avenue site includes a mix of meeting rooms, videoconferencing technology, interactive showrooms with product and robotic displays, a fabrication lab and 3D printer center, a training and conference center, a board room, breakout and lounge seating, banquet facilities, and more. The interactive product display area shows all the products made by the company’s North American operations. For example, there are replicas of an airplane fuselage, a full-size automobile and military tank treads with actual Hutchinson parts inserted.

Duclos notes that about 70 local companies participated in renovating the new space, which sits on Hutchinson’s 30-acre Grand Rapids campus and which previously served as a storage facility.

“This facility is over 100 years old, so it’s full of footsteps from the past,” Duclos says. “In fact, if you look closely at some of these floors, you can still see those footprints. We felt it important to keep some of those footsteps visible, not just as a way to reflect on the past, but to also use it as a reminder that it takes the footsteps of many people to create things, to innovate, to collaborate, to create. Perhaps in another 100 years people will be standing here, reflecting on the historical changes this innovation had for our company, for our city and region, and for our state.”

The company’s decision to not only remain in Grand Rapids but open a world-class facility to drive global innovation “speaks highly for the region’s community,” says Klohs, the president and CEO of The Right Place, West Michigan’s leading economic development corporation that has assisted thousands of companies to invest more than $4 billion in capital and create more than 40,000 jobs throughout the region.

“It sends a message that says a company of this importance has chosen Grand Rapids,” Klohs says, noting that a global group like Hutchinson will draw other major companies to our area, including Boeing, Chrysler, Fiat, and many more.

“They can come to Grand Rapids and see the creativity that comes out of this company, and also this community,” Klohs continues.

Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who was unable to attend the grand opening because she was at the Mayors’ Conference in Washington D.C., sent her congratulations via a recorded message.

“The city of Grand Rands is very proud to have a longtime business such as Hutchinson invest in our city, particularly in our manufacturing and technology sectors,” she says. “This innovation and dedication to advancing research and development is exactly what the city of Grand Rapids need to be a leader in this country.”

Photos courtesy of Hutchinson

Anna Gustafson is the managing editor at Rapid Growth. Connect with her on email ([email protected]), Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.