Johnson Controls & Ikeda Bussan
Johnson Controls and Ikeda Bussan name joint venture “Vintec Co.”
Montage from a 1986 Johnson Controls Automotive Systems Group brochure
March 15, 1989 (PD: 201403)
The March 15, 1989 issue of the Johnson Controls newsletter Briefing announced that “Vintec Co.” would be the official name for the second joint venture between the Automotive Systems Group (today’s Automotive Experience Business Unit) and Ikeda Bussan of Japan that was created the previous October.
Vintec, headquartered in Smyrna, Tennessee, supplied complete seating systems and headliners to Nissan from two manufacturing facilities in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Johnson Controls’ first joint venture effort with Ikeda Bussan, Ikeda-Hoover, was formed in 1986 with a plant at Tyne and Wear, England, which supplied complete seating and interior trim components for Nissan vehicles produced in the United Kingdom.
Johnson Controls acquired Ikeda Bussan in 2000 and still operates a seating plant in Murfreesboro with over 900 employees.
