Made in Michiana: FMS Seating Co.

ROCHESTER, Ind. - Tucked somewhere between Leiters Ford and Rochester sits FMS Seating, a company known for making some of the most top of the line seats in the transportation industry.

"The focus in this market is really high end, luxury, comfort," said Managing Director Christy Nunes. 

One major key is they are 100-percent hand crafted - from the sewing to the stuffing. 

"We make all of our own seating covers," said Nunes. "We do all of the upholstery and assembly here in this facility. We're doing some top level stitching, some sewing and cutting of the covers and that area."

Sales Manager Dave Dygert says that personal touch is key to selling to the wide variety of high end clients they serve.

"Primarily for personal transportation or luxury shuttles used for gated communities, casinos, cruise ships anyone who wants a little more upscale type bus," said Dygert.

They also make a second line of handicap accessible seats. 

"We make a seat called the fold-away where the back folds down and the whole thing folds up against the wall to make room for a wheelchair passenger," said Nunes.

In all, the 35 employees crank out roughly 200 seats a day, a number they hope to increase as production takes off.

"In the three years we've been here we've grown the facility and doubled the number of jobs here and we want to continue down that path and bring more jobs to the community," said Nunes.

"It's a people business," added Dygert. "We don't have a lot of heavy machinery. One person operates the sewing machine. One person installs the seat so as we grow we will have to add more people." 

When it comes to people they want to keep it local. The company has even teamed up with area schools to make that happen.

"We've partnered with some of the local high schools and vocational programs to develop programs that would teach people that want to get into manufacturing the right skills necessary to come into an environment like this," said Nunes.

An environment they hope will continue to thrive for many years to come, putting out even more products made in Michiana.