Driven by a key strategic initiative to expand its North American position and support its customers throughout North America, Bomag Americas last week said it will cease manufacturing operations in Kewanee, Ill., by the end of 2014 and relocate its business to a yet-to-be-determined location in the southern United States.
The products (single-drum rollers, asphalt rollers, MPH364 reclaimer/stabilizer), which are currently manufactured in Kewanee will either be relocated and/or replaced with market-accepted products manufactured in other existing Bomag facilities located in Oklahoma, Germany or China. The company said it is making this move in order to maximize its manufacturing efficiencies, maintain competitive product costs and better support its customers.
The company will build a new facility to accommodate a parts distribution center; training facility for sales and service; assembly to accommodate special features for the North American market; and a corporate office complex. In conjunction with this move the company also announced its intent to enter into a long-term lease with a facility based in Oklahoma that will focus on providing the engineering, technical support and manufacturing of asphalt pavers, material transfer vehicles and reclaimer/stabilizers specifically designed for North and South America as well as other key export markets.
“In order to improve our leading position in the marketplace we felt it was imperative to consolidate our manufacturing operations in order to leverage economies of scale and maximize our competitive position,” said Joerg Unger, president of Bomag Worldwide. “Our intent is to strengthen our North American organization with the objective of being closer to our customers in service support, product development and product-specific engineering utilizing all potential synergies within the Bomag Worldwide organization. The North American market is the largest market in the world and is strategic to our company’s long-term success.”
Bomag produces a range of light equipment, asphalt pavers, cold milling planers, reclaimer/stabilizers, and soil, asphalt and landfill compaction equipment.
