Kubota Tractor Corp. and Kubota Manufacturing of America Corp. announced plans to increase production capacity by building a new manufacturing plant and expand its operations in Gainesville, Ga. The announcement comes less than a week after saying it will relocate its United States headquarters from Torrance, Calif., to Grapevine, Texas, in an effort to be closer to its major markets and customers.
Kubota’s new Georgia plant will be located on 180 acres at Gateway Industrial Centre in Gainesville-Hall County, three miles from KMA’s existing facilities. The new building will be an estimated 502,000 square feet. The existing facility, in operation since 1988, will undergo enhancements to increase production capacity to support Kubota’s growing turf business.
“We estimate that this expansion of our operations will allow us to increase production capacity by 60 percent over the next five years,” said Hironobu Kubota, president of KMA. Construction of the new Georgia facility is expected to begin in September 2015 with a goal to begin mass production in spring of 2017. The new plant will manufacture Kubota’s RTV series utility vehicles with the capacity to produce 50,000 units annually.
“Growing our manufacturing operations in Georgia will enable us to achieve even greater operational efficiencies to make Kubota’s business stronger and more competitive,” said Masato Yoshikawa, president and CEO of KTC. “We will be better equipped to respond to market needs more quickly, satisfying both dealer and customer demand for Kubota’s popular sub-compact tractors, turf products and utility vehicles.”
Both KTC and KMA are U.S. subsidiaries of Kubota Corp., based in Osaka, Japan, and have recently pursued an aggressive growth strategy in the U.S.
