Strong & Growing

Keeping Our Company Strong & Growing…

One of the keys to our success at MBUSI lies in our efforts to bring together the talents, experiences and unique perspectives of all our team members to bear on all aspects of our business.

"After all, it makes good business sense for a company to be inclusive in both its employment and business practices," said Lee Dennis, manager of Purchasing. "Not to mention the fact that African Americans and Hispanics are the fastest growing segments of the U.S. car-buying market."

Diversity encompasses all of the differences that make each of us unique- culture, ethnicity, race, nationality, gender, age, opinions, religion, beliefs, education, experience, disability and the list goes on and on. Minorities comprise 33 percent of MBUSI's team members, and there is a wealth of diversity in the experience our team members bring to the table to help our company continue to identify trends and create new business opportunities to help us grow our business.

In the area of supplier diversity, minority-owned construction companies received $21 million, or 10-percent of the plants construction costs. Six out of the assembly plant's 80 suppliers are minority-owned companies. They were paid $48 million in 1999, or about eight percent of the plant's procurement budget.

MBUSI has been actively involved in a variety of industry organizations, including the National Minority Supplier Development Council, the South Regions Minority Supplier Development Council, and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers. MBUSI also supports a variety of local community organizations, including the Birmingham Urban League, the United Negro College Fund, the German American Chamber of Commerce, the NAACP and its local affiliates, the Alabama/Germany Partnership, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Alabama State Black Caucus.

Members of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers traveled to Birmingham and to the plant for a tour, reception and Gala Dinner in August 1999. In July, MBUSI sponsored a group of local minority journalists in their travels to Seattle, Washington for Unity 2000 - a professional development convention that brought together African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American journalists.

"Our management continues to be very sensitive to the diversity issue," said Dennis. "Our ongoing goal is that the people involved with facility construction and vehicle production mirror the community. Quite simply, diversity is the right thing to do."