It looks like that trip to Germany awhile back really helped and is keeping jobs in Michigan. Great job Granholm...
Report: VW moving American headquarters from Mich. to Va.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Volkswagen AG is moving its North American headquarters from Michigan to northern Virginia so it can attract a skilled young work force and get closer to its customers, The Washington Post reported Thursday.
The office of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said he would make an economic development announcement Thursday morning near Dulles International Airport. A spokesman declined to say it related to VW.
The German automaker now employs about 1,600 people at its headquarters in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills and in nearby Rochester Hills.
The company will bring 400 jobs and will invest about $100 million as it shifts operations to Herndon, Va., the newspaper reported. It said the move will eliminate 400 positions, leaving 600 jobs in suburban Detroit.
Volkswagen of America's new president and chief executive said that northern Virginia's good schools, skilled workers and proximity to Dulles International Airport made it an attractive site.
"For a young talent, 35 years old, to come here with his family ... is a very important factor," Stefan Jacoby told the Post. "By reducing this organization by 30 percent, you need even more talents, more creative people, more motivated people."
VW decided in early 2006 that it wanted to move to the East Coast, which he said was home for most of its customers, Jacoby said.
"You want to work in an environment where you see your customers, where you see your cars on the road," he said. "You don't want to work where you basically see only American cars of the Big Three."
In Lansing, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm met with Jacoby on Wednesday evening after a report in The Detroit News that VW was considering relocating to Virginia. Neither side commented after the meeting.
"The governor is always making the case for Michigan, and she will continue making the case for Michigan," Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd said earlier in the day.
The Associated Press left several messages for Volkswagen seeking comment Wednesday.
Economic development officials in Michigan's Oakland County, where VW's headquarters is located, also attended Wednesday's meeting in hope of making a pitch to keep the jobs, said Maureen Krauss, deputy director of economic development and community affairs.
She said after the meeting ended that she could not provide details on what happened.
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Associated Press reporter Matthew Barakat in Virginia contributed to this report.
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