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Ford's Automotive Components Holdings group has completed the sale of its North American automotive glass business to a company formed specifically to buy the business.

The sale to a new company called Zeledyne involves plants at Nashville in Tennessee and Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Vidriocar subsidiary in Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. There are also leased warehouses and offices in Tennessee and Michigan.

Zeledyne has been formed by private investor Robert Price, from Tulsa, and he has hired former Ford south-east Asian chief Michael McCarney as CEO.

The company employs 1,600 people and makes automotive glass both for OEMs and the replacement market, as well as architectural glass. Price said he saw opportunities for expansion in all the markets.

Automotive Components Holdings was formed by Ford to dispose of parts businesses that were not seen as core to the vehicle manufacturing business. This sale is its fourth and it now has eight factories and 9,000 employees, down from 17 plants and 23,000 employees when it was spun out from Ford in October 2005.

Bill Connelly, CEO of Automotive Components, said: "We are working aggressively to complete the sale of more ACH plants this year."