Lear Introduces Aventino™ Collection of Premium Automotive Leather

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan · November 7, 2007 /PRNewswire/ — Lear Corporation [NYSE: LEA], one of the world's largest suppliers of automotive seating systems, electrical distribution systems and electronic products, today unveiled its Aventino™ Collection of premium automotive leather at Fashion Show held for automotive executives and journalists at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Detroit.

By utilizing the exclusive People-Vehicle-Interface Methodology™ (PVI Method), Lear employs an innovation development discipline that turns market opportunities into the products that consumers want in their vehicles. Following the PVI Method led Lear to develop its own line of premium leather. Influenced by current fashion trends and crafted by Lear's world-class fabricating capabilities, the Aventino Collection, reflects Lear's latest new product innovation.

"The Aventino Collection features the same unparalleled luxury, style and design cues that consumers have appreciated in fashion couture," said Ray Scott, Lear's president of the North American seating business. "With Aventino, fashion is no longer only about the clothes you wear; it's the handbag you carry, the case for your cell phone and now it is the seats in your car."

It all starts at Lear's Aventino design studio, located at the Global Innovation & Technology Center at Lear's headquarters campus in Southfield. Here, designers with degrees in Fine Arts and Fabric Design, study color and trim trends in the fashion and home décor segments and analyze consumer research for use in product design and development.

Through our research, ten major trends emerged for automotive leather:

Color
From subtle to bold, a wide variety of colors to choose from to create a vehicle interior
Contrast
Stitching and sections of the seat can be contrasted in various manners to create a visually appealing 'canvas'
Gloss
A matte finish differentiates the material for a sophisticated appearance
Metallic
A hot trend in fashion used in a subtle manner satisfies the appeal of a metallic appearance and creates a 'Wow!" effect
Weaving
Basket weaving with tack stitching is just one way to incorporate weave designs onto a seat
Exotics
The popularity of animal print textures can be beautifully incorporated into the vehicle seat pattern
Quilted
Quilting has recently been used on designer bags and shoes, and creates the appearance of sophistication and luxury in a car seat
Perforations
Perforation add even more character to your customized seats
Variation
Different grain sizes and shapes for your own personal taste
Stitching
Baseball stitching is thick and noticeable, yet also trendy
Personalization
Embossing your seats with initials, logos, or symbols
Effects
Choose a distressed or crinkled surface finish to achieve a vintage look

"The ultimate product differentiator in Aventino leather is the sense of vehicle personalization it is capable of providing as a result of its best-in-class styling, textures, finish and color," said Mara Ignatius, Craftsmanship manager at Lear. "Aventino leather is an opportunity for consumers to imprint their own style through the look and feel of their car seats to express their identity."

Of equal importance to Lear's immediate customers, the automakers, is its vertical integration and expertise in automotive seating. As a full seat integrator, Lear has a proven track record with every element of the seat, from producing seat structures and all its contents right up to the seat "trim" - the fabric or leather covering - as well as 100% production of the completed assembly delivered to the vehicle manufacturer. Lear's start-to-finish capabilities, global scale, ISO quality certifications and Six Sigma best practices all add up to superior total value in its Aventino Collection.

In addition to the Southfield design studio in Southfield, Lear has established a showroom at its 151,000 square-foot trim facility in Victoria Plant in Mexico, which performs leather finishing, cutting, perforation, embossment and special logo work. As an industry leader in leather cutting and finishing with a full-service laboratory, Lear is capable of finishing between 3,700 - 6,000 hides per day. This allows Lear to have complete control over timing-related issues, product availability and quality as well as the ability to leverage quantities of scale in purchasing the raw materials.

"Lear understands each step of the process to build and trim a complete seat, and does it better than anyone else, in either high-volume applications or a niche production environment," said Scott. "Nobody compares to Lear in terms of our total seat capability, from market research to design and throughout the entire production process. From start to finish, we intend to lead the automotive seat industry."

Lear Corporation is one of the world's largest suppliers of automotive seating systems, electrical distribution systems and electronic products. Lear's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a diverse team of more than 90,000 employees at 236 facilities in 33 countries. Lear's headquarters are in Southfield, Michigan. Lear is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol [LEA]. Further information about Lear is available on the Internet at http://www.lear.com.