Dive Brief:
- Modine Manufacturing will open a facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, creating 200 jobs by 2029, according to a Jan. 22 Franklin city press release.
- Modine plans to move into the 153,000-square-foot facility this year which will produce thermal management systems used in specialty and commercial electric vehicles.
- The city government has offered $1.6 million in tax increment financing to support the development, according to the release. An investment amount from Modine was not disclosed.
Dive Insight:
The Franklin facility’s thermal management systems will be used for fire trucks, last-mile delivery vehicles, municipal buses and commercial equipment, according to the January release.
In October 2024, heavy-duty transit bus maker Gillig chose Modine as its battery thermal management system and inverter cooling supplier for its hybrid electric vehicles, according to the press release. Since 2023, over 100 Gillig hybrid buses featuring Modine's technology have been deployed across multiple U.S. cities.
Modine is seeing growth in its battery thermal management systems unit and making it a larger part of the company’s overall portfolio, EVP and CFO Mick Lucareli said on its latest earnings call in October 2024. The company’s Q3 revenue was up 6% to $658 million.
“And we're still expecting our battery thermal management and the EV systems to grow quite rapidly this year in excess of 30%,” Lucareli said.
Modine is also prioritizing its data center business. Last February, the company acquired Scott Springfield Manufacturing, a manufacturer of air handling units, expanding Modine’s reach into new markets such as hyperscale and colocation data centers, healthcare and telecommunications. Modine opened a manufacturing facility in Calgary, Canada, at the time of the acquisition.
"Data center revenue growth continues to drive top-line improvement, including the significant impact from the Scott Springfield acquisition. This more than offset lower volumes in both our vehicular end markets and in our heat transfer product business,” Modine President and CEO Neil Brinker said in a Q2 2025 earnings release.
The company also announced plans in January to open a new manufacturing facility in Chennai, India, by mid-2025, focusing on cooling solutions for data centers.
