Johnson Controls Opens Plant in Russia / Production On-Site in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia and BURSCHEID, Germany, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Johnson Controls, one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive Interior systems, electronics and batteries, has started operation of its first plant in Russia and now supplies the local market with a complete range of seating systems for the Ford Focus. With its new JIT (just-in-time) plant in St. Petersburg, the company has followed its customer to Russia.

Johnson Controls has already been engineering and producing the seating, AutoVision entertainment systems and batteries for the new Focus model for the European market. Now the company is also manufacturing the front and rear seats for all four Focus vehicle models at its St. Petersburg JIT plant - from the basic version to the comfortable mid-range model to the luxury sport edition. This means the automaker can be supplied with the desired seating systems directly from the Johnson Controls plant located close to its own site. This location was selected because of its close proximity just 60 kilometers away from Ford and the good transportation infrastructure.

The new assembly plant, which has 2,000 square meters of floor space, offers plenty of room for approximately 60 employees who found new jobs here as office staff, engineers, electronics technicians, materials specialists and assembly workers. "With our new plant in St. Petersburg, we are able to supply our customer faster and better than before, as well as enhancing our working relationship with both the automaker and our own suppliers in Russia," said René Behiels, Group Vice President and General Manager of Johnson Controls.

Further information is available from: Johnson Controls GmbH Johnson Controls GmbH Automotive Group Automotive Group Astrid Schafmeister Ina Longwitz Industriestr. 20-30 Industriestr. 20-30 51399 Burscheid, Germany 51399 Burscheid, Germany Phone: +49-2174-65-3189 Phone: +49-2174-65-4343 Fax: +49-2174-65-3219 Fax: +49-2174-65-3219 E-mail: astrid.schafmeister@jci.com E-mail: ina.longwitz@jci.com

Johnson Controls, Inc., is a global market leader in automotive systems and facility management and control. In the automotive market, it is a major supplier of integrated seating and interior systems, and batteries. For non-residential facilities, Johnson Controls provides control systems and services including comfort, energy and security management.

Johnson Controls (New York Stock Exchange: JCI), founded in 1885, has its headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The company's sales for 2004 totaled US$26.6 billion, the Automotive Group worldwide generating US$20.5 billion of this figure. The European headquarters is in Burscheid, Germany. The company's product portfolio also includes instrument panels/cockpits, door systems, overhead systems, interior electronics and electrical energy management.