Guilford Performance Textiles Inc announced the company has entered into an agreement with NNG, a subsidiary of YanFeng Inc, one of China's leading automotive interior manufacturers serving the nation's automotive industry, creating a joint venture to provide textiles to the Chinese automotive industry. The new venture, Anhui Guilford Automotive Interiors Co Ltd, is located in the city of HuaiNan in the Province of Anhui in eastern China.

This alliance will allow Guilford and NNG to leverage complementary strengths to achieve expanded market coverage and enhance the companies' competitiveness in the world's fastest growing automobile market. Anhui Guilford will benefit from the collaboration of Guilford's trusted technical and manufacturing expertise in automobile textiles and NNG's extensive client base in China's automotive industry. The joint venture currently employs 230 workers and manufactures seating products for Chery Automobile, JAC Motors, Shanghai Volkswagen, and a number of other customers in the region.

"China's automotive industry is experiencing explosive growth. With this joint venture, Guilford is now ideally located to offer our fabrics and engineered products to Chinese manufacturers," said Shannon White, Chief Executive Officer of Guilford.

"Following a comprehensive review of expansion opportunities in China, we are pleased to he found an extraordinary business partner in NNG that we expect will offer long-term growth opportunities in China. This is the first step in what we anticipate will become a significant expansion into the Asian market for Guilford."

Established in 1946, Guilford designs, develops, and manufactures fabrics and engineered products. Guilford manufactures automotive body cloth products for seating bolsters and inserts, seatbacks, door panels, package trays, and trunk liners; and textiles for overhead systems, such as headliners, pillars, package trays, sunshades, and sunvisors.