80 Business View Magazine - September 2016
vans from the Wentzville Assembly Center and drive
them over to Knapheide. They’ll have these custom-
ized racking units installed and then they’ll drive them
back to the plant where they’re loaded onto a train or
tractor-trailer units and delivered to various locations.
In addition to that business, there are two others that
capitalize on General Motors’ presence. “Ground Ef-
fects is a Canadian-based company, but they have a
facility here that was just constructed – 30,000 square
feet,” Lang continues. “They spray bedliners in pick-up
trucks. They have paint booths with robotic units that
spray very precisely. It adds about $500 to the vehicle
to get a sprayed-in bed-liner, while the plastic units
cost about $300. So, a lot of people say, ‘Well, if I’m
only paying a couple of hundred more, which I’ll nego-
tiate as part of my deal on a vehicle, I’d rather have a
sprayed-in bed-liner than something else which gets
put in, aftermarket.’”
The second spin-off is called the Wentzville Logistics
Center. “It’s presently under construction and will be
completed by the end of this year,” Lang reports. “It
is a 1.1 million square foot logistics facility to support
the General Motors plant. That’s a huge building – 25
acres under roof. The purpose of the building is this:
General Motors has a production schedule called ‘just-
in-time.’ Just-in-time means that parts are brought to
the plant and within 24 hours from the time the part
