Brampton Assembly is a Chrysler automobile factory is located at 2000 Williams Parkway East, in Brampton, Ontario, Canada. Originally built by American Motors Corporation (AMC) for US$260 million, the manufacturing plant was specially designed for building the Eagle Premier.
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In June 1984, American Motors Corporation (AMC) established an agreement with the governments of Ontario and Canada to build a new assembly plant.[1] Both the national and provincial governments loaned AMC C$100 million each to build the C$764 million facility.[1] The agreement also included a royalty to the governments equal to 1% of the sales price of every vehicle produced at the facility.[1]
The infrastructure builder EllisDon Construction completed the US$260 million (US$549,752,491 in 2012 dollars [2]) plant and associated buildings.[3] The factory was opened by AMC in 1986 as Bramalea Assembly, a state-of-the-art robotics-based assembly facility with 2,950,000 square feet (274,000 m2) of floor space located on 269 acres (108.9 ha) specifically designed to produce the Eagle Premier.
It was acquired (along with the rest of AMC) by Chrysler in August 1987. The factory was ranked tops in Chrysler's 1988 quality audit of the cars produced in each of automaker's plants.[1]
Production of the Chrysler LH platform cars began in June 1992 and continued with the updated LH cars in 1997. Production switched to the rear-wheel drive Chrysler LX platform cars in January 2004.
The attached Brampton Satellite Stamping, which opened in 1991, was built for the launch of the Chrysler LH platform.
At that time, the Brampton Assembly operated with three shifts of production. It is the city of Brampton's largest employer, with over 4,200 people working there.
On July 19, 2007 Chrysler Group announced an investment of US$1.2 billion in the Brampton plant for upgrades to the Chrysler 300 series, Dodge Magnum, and Dodge Charger, as well as a $500 million manufacturing investment to prepare for European-market LX platform product loading.[4]
On November 1, 2007 Chrysler LLC announced that it is ending the third shift in Brampton with the loss of 1,000 direct jobs as well as declaring that production of the Dodge Magnum in Brampton will end in early 2008.[5]
On May 1, 2009, both the Brampton Assembly and Windsor Assembly plants were shut down as a result of Chrysler's bankruptcy protection filing on April 30 in the United States, affecting about 2,700 employees at the Brampton Assembly and 4,400 at the Windsor Assembly. A Chrysler parts plant in Etobicoke, Toronto operated until May 10, when it was closed down for 30 to 60 days, affecting 300 employees, while it went through restructuring under court-ordered creditor protection.[6]
After the reorganization, Chrysler announced the launch of new models of the 300 and Charger to be produced in the Brampton assembly plant, beginning in 2010.[7]
The factory began production of the redesigned 2011 Chrysler 300 in January 2011. At this time total employment was 2,871 (2,733 hourly; 138 salaried) working two shifts.[8]
Overall Production = 4,414,995
The current Chrysler factory is not the same as a nearby American Motors (AMC) plant that shared the same name.
American Motors' original "Brampton Assembly Plant" opened in 1966. It was part of American Motors Canada, Inc. and was located at northeast corner of Steeles Avenue and Kennedy Road. In its first year, it produced 33,000 cars in Canada.[9] This assembly plant produced Rambler Americans, AMC Rebels, Ambassadors, and Javelins.
American Motors was in the best position of the U.S. automakers to take advantage of the Canada–United States Automotive Products Agreement.[10] The Ambassador and Javelin production was moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin while assembly of Ramblers and Rebels increased. By 1969, the year of the introduction of the Hornet, the output of AMC's Brampton operation was destined to the eastern half of the continent while production at Kenosha supplied the western regions.[11]
The original Brampton plant later also produced Gremlins, Concords and Eagles, as well as Jeep CJ and Wrangler vehicles.
In 1987, with the Chrysler buy-out, the AMC division and its plants (Brampton and Bramalea) were absorbed into Chrysler, becoming part of Chrysler Canada Limited. When the Jeep Wrangler production was moved to Toledo in 1992, the new Bramalea plant was renamed to Brampton Assembly.[12] The original AMC plant was closed in 1992 and sold to Wal-Mart for use as their Canadian warehouse.
The remains of the plant were torn down in 2005, and the land is currently under redevelopment. Among the buildings on the site is a Lowe's home improvement store, one of the first to be built in Canada.