Why Yokohama?

ーCompany Interview Seriesー

Leggett & Platt Automotive
Leggett & Platt Automotive
focuses on providing cuttingedge products to OEMs andTier 1s all over the world, witha focus on high quality,competitive, needed products
and excellent customer
service.

We have been globalizing the business and now have around 30
locations worldwide, of which our Yokohama branch plays animportant part.
Leggett & Platt started out in 1883, in Missouri, and specialized in wire springs.
Over the years the company diversified and expanded its scope. Leggett & Platt
Automotive came to life around 2000 with the acquisition of a number ofcompanies, notably the Schukra organisation.
We have grown the automotive group to approximately 30 locations worldwide,and are fortunate to have great relations with all Japanese OEMs.
We service OEMs and Tier 1s around the world, working in a variety of parts forinternal combustion vehicles, EVs, and AEVs, with a strong focus on growing ourconvenience products and comfort items such as seats. We anticipate that asvehicles become increasingly autonomous, the focus of users will shift further
toward general convenience and comfort in the cockpit.
Japan is very important, not only because of the OEMs, but also because of a goodnumber of Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers critical to the industry are based in thecountry. Beyond being a simple end market, Japan produces 10% of the world’s
vehicles, and we are seeing more and more partnerships between American andJapanese OEMs.
The future will bring important changes to the industry; partnerships will
diversify and companies working in different sectors will be brought together.
We have recently signed an agreement with a important start-up accelerator as
part of our structured approach to technology scouting.

Having moved to Yokohama in 2016, its central location and easeof access has allowed us to easily keep in touch with ourpartners around the country.
Hayato Sugawara,
Manager – L&P Automotive Japan KK (Left)
Steve Henderson,
Vice President – Leggett & Platt
President – Automotive Group (Middle)
Barry Jones,President, North America
Chief Technology Officer (Right)

All our team member like Yokohama very much; it is a comfortable city to liveand work, and there are always many interesting events taking place. The Minato
Mirai area in particular has a nice welcoming, open, clean, professional feel to it.
In the morning, I often jog along the oceanfront, where I see people fishing or
doing tai chi; it has a great atmosphere.
Many people from around the world live in the area, and it has quite acosmopolitan feel. Actually, more than half of the staff in our Yokohama Office
are non-Japanese.
From a visitor’s perspective, access is very easy since Haneda Airport is rightaround the corner, and even Narita Airport is under two hours away via theNarita Express train.
It is easy to use the Shinkansen or expressways to go around Japan, and we are
only an hour and fifteen minutes away from Toyota City, less than two hours
from Honda, and less than an hour from Nissan.
Costs are lower than they were in Tokyo, and Yokohama City has been very
supportive when we relocated here. Our team is very happy to be here.
Interviewed by Yokohama World Business Support Center, 13/11/2018

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