LOMBARD, Ill. — Celette celebrated the opening of its new North American headquarters last month with an open house and a roundtable discussion featuring representatives from the insurance and automobile manufacturing industries. The company, based in France, makes frame benches, lifting bases and other equipment.

Celette moved its North American headquarters from California to Lombard, Ill., as part of an initiative to work more closely with domestic automobile manufacturers. The company presently specializes in equipment for primarily European auto manufacturers, and also has divisions in Germany, Switzerland and Spain.

The new facility also includes Celette's first research center in North America. "This is a big deal for us, because this is the first time we'll be designing equipment outside of France," says Mike Kukavica, director, technical and training development with Celette. "We're trying to expand our product offerings for domestic U.S. vehicles."

This is an important move for Celette, the company says, because it doesn’t reverse-engineer its frame machines. "We only take measurements directly from the manufacturer," Kukavica says. "If we don't have those relationships with the vehicle manufacturers, we can't make fixtures for those models."

The I-CAR tour and roundtable brought together representatives from I-CAR, Mercedes Benz, BMW and State Farm. "The goal was to put these people together so they could discuss how they can help each other and work together," Kukavica says. "We all have the same interest — we want tog get cars repaired properly."

According to Kukavica, Celette is working closely with one of the Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers already, and is in discussions with the others so that the company can access their vehicle design data.

For more information visit www.celette-na.com.