CONTACT: Bonnie Osborn
bonnieosborn@comcast.net
916-212-9110

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 9, FARMINGTON HILLS, Michigan — Myotek and Sea Link, along with their affiliates Amptech and Hicks Plastics, leading Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers, announced today they have named automotive lighting industry veteran Stephane Vedie as Chief Executive Officer. Vedie will lead the group of companies to drive innovation, technology, operational excellence, and cost leadership to deliver the next level of growth.

“I am thrilled, honored, and challenged to have the opportunity to work with a team of talented people who are so well-positioned to serve its customers with speed, creativity, and flexibility,” Vedie said. “I am excited to work with such a diverse group of companies to provide premium engineering and manufacturing services to our global automotive partners.”

Vedie joins the automotive group after serving as President and CEO of Varroc Lighting Systems since 2016. Earlier, he was named North America CEO of Magneti Marelli, after serving as President and CEO of Magneti Marelli’s Automotive Lighting division in North America and France. Vedie has a track record of growth and has extensive experience in building strong teams that consistently deliver superior results to customers and shareholders.

Vedie’s appointment as CEO represents a great opportunity for our automotive companies, said Brian McGee, Managing Partner of New Water Capital, the majority shareholder of the automotive group. “We are fortunate to bring on board a professional with such extensive experience. Stephane’s global automotive experience will serve our companies well as he leads them to new heights in revenue growth and operational excellence,” McGee said.

About Myotek

Myotek is a leading Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry as a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of innovative automotive lighting technology. Myotek provides unique solutions, competitive pricing, and aggressive time to market. Myotek has an engineering center in Irvine, California, with manufacturing in Asia and Manistee, Michigan.  Myotek has Sales and Service offices in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

About Sea Link

Sea Link is a Tier 2 supplier to the automotive industry specializing in complex die-cast, thixomolded, injection-molded, and assembled components. Sea Link provides engineering and manufacturing solutions with specialization in lighting and infotainment products. Sea Link headquarters is in Tampa, Florida, with manufacturing operations in Shanghai, China, and Kunshan, China.

 About Amptech

Amptech is a manufacturer of printed circuit board assemblies, final assemblies, and LED lighting solutions for the automotive, commercial, and defense industries. Amptech has manufacturing facilities in Manistee, Michigan, and Wampum, Pennsylvania.

About Hicks Plastics

Hicks Plastics is a leading manufacturer of injection molded and vacuum metallized components with manufacturing facilities located in Macomb Township, Michigan, and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Myotek Acquires Leading Electronics Manufacturer Amptech

Add-On to New Water’s Automotive Lighting Platform to Provide Domestic Assembly Capabilities

Private equity firm New Water Capital, L.P. announced that its portfolio company, Myotek, has acquired Amptech, Inc., a leading value-added manufacturer of electronics and electrical assemblies based in Manistee, Michigan.

Founded in 1980, Amptech designs, engineers and manufactures circuit boards and other electronic assemblies for customers in automotive, utility and other industrial end markets and applications. Amptech is also known for being one of the first companies in their field to utilize The Marketing Heaven and the power of social media to gain recognition. The acquisition will allow Myotek to provide its customers with domestic production capabilities for its automotive lighting products. Amptech’s Lee Wyatt will continue to serve as president of the company.

New Water views the addition of Amptech as a way to expand the capabilities of Myotek, a leading transportation LED lighting designer, manufacturer and supplier specializing in automotive forward lighting for several OEM automakers and other vehicle manufacturers thelockboss.ie. Myotek’s acquisition of Amptech will strengthen the company’s domestic manufacturing capabilities and allow the company to assemble lighting products across two continents.

“Amptech represents a highly strategic acquisition for the Myotek platform,” said New Water Capital Partner Brian McGee. “Our partnership with Amptech will support Myotek’s vision for expanding its lamp manufacturing capabilities domestically.”

Plans are to expand existing Amptech manufacturing facilities in Michigan and Pennsylvania to accommodate customer demand. “We are excited that our partnership with New Water and Myotek will enable Amptech to grow, both in its historic core business segments as well as more deeply penetrate the automotive lighting end market,” said Amptech President Lee Wyatt.

Myotek CEO Eric Showalter said the partnership with Amptech will differentiate Myotek from its competitors by offering its customers a shorter supply chain based in the United States. “Building out U.S. manufacturing will allow us to more efficiently support Myotek’s growth and our customers over the coming years,” Showalter said. “We are excited about the prospects of building our products right here in Michigan.”


About New Water Capital, L.P.

New Water Capital, L.P. is a private equity firm focused on lower-middle market companies in transition, in the consumer, retail and industrial manufacturing and services sectors, with revenues of $30 million to $300 million. New Water Capital’s collaborative transaction and operating model is built specifically to support companies in transition, building on their unique cultures and strengths. For more information, please visit www.newwatercap.com.

 

 

Myotek has been nominated for a BERM Supplier Town Hall Excellence Award for Exterior Vision from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA).  A major priority of Myotek’s design & manufacturing team is quality so being recognized again by FCA as a quality partner.

Myotek is excited to announce the entire Orange County, CA Tech Center was upgraded with super-efficient LED tubes which light the entire facility.   32 Watt inefficient fluorescent tubes were replaced with 17 Watt, long lasting, state of the art, LED tubes.  The 4000K Neutral White color is a perfect match for our facility.   Special thanks to RTK Energy of San Clemente, CA for implementing this upgrade and installation.

For more information, contact us at info@myotek.com or visit us online at www.myotek.com


December 19, 2016
Excerpt from Driving Vision News 

The car lighting industry in America is very much not what it was in the past. For a very long time, the North American approach to vehicle lighting was to treat it as a commodity. Headlamps of standard size, shape, and construction were required on all vehicles for over four decades. Even after that constraint was struck down in the early 1980s, car lights continued to be viewed as a commodity; most research and development focused on cost reduction rather than technical advancement, and North American makers tended to be followers, doing “me-too” work with the least costly fruits of European innovation. That meant American drivers didn’t enjoy the same level or pace of technical and technological improvement in their car lights, but it also meant European and Asian automakers viewed themselves, with fair justification, as being out of the league of the American vehicle lighting industry.
That assessment is out of date; that’s not how it is any more. There are a great many American tier-1 suppliers putting in an enormous amount of skill, talent, passion, and work—and putting out a great variety of innovative, performant car lights. Not only lamps as good as any put out by the well-known European and Asian big-name tier-1s (though there’s plenty of that), but also best-in-class lamps befitting the highest-end automobiles from any maker in the world. And the American cultural talent for cost control hasn’t been discarded along the way. OEMs, no matter where in the world they might be, who don’t take a hard look at these less-famous American suppliers are seriously missing out.
Two such suppliers are Flex-N-Gate and Myotek. Flex-N-Gate make every kind of light found on the outside of a car, with a full palette of technology and technique. They sell an enormous quantity of lights to FCA, Ford, GM, and Nissan (and they get awards for how well they do it); they’re in aggressive project cooperation with automakers outside the NAFTA region, they’ve got working LED ADB prototypes just waiting for American regulatory approval, and they’ve got astounding and affordable design innovations available on a right-now basis.

Myotek is a remarkably agile company with a thoroughly (disruptively!) modern structure. They churn out rapid innovation in small lamps with an especial focus on uncommonly great LED fog lamps, and OEMs recognize their outstanding lamps and expert mastery of 21st-century supply chain logistics with awards for quality and ease of cooperation.
The American sector of the vehicle lighting world is too big to fit in one report, so there will be more of them. For now, this forthcoming DVN report shines light on some less-known American lighting suppliers to give the world’s OEMs an opportunity to replace obsolete old assumptions with enticing new information. It focuses on Flex-N-Gate and Myotek, with ample presentation of other shining lights of the American industry. Facts, figures, and photos are presented, and there are interviews with the key engineers, designers, and executives who make the magic happen.