Kubota Manufacturing of America Corp. broke ground this week on its 502,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at Gateway Industrial Centre in Gainesville, Ga. The company has a goal to begin mass production in the spring of 2017. The new plant will be positioned on 180 acres of land, three miles from KMA’s existing facilities. The plant will manufacture Kubota’s RTV series utility vehicles, with the capacity to produce 50,000 units annually.
KMA estimates that this expansion will allow the company to increase production capacity by 60 percent during the next five years. The existing KMA facility, which has been in operation since 1988 and employs about 1,300 people, will also undergo enhancements to increase its production capacity to support Kubota’s growing turf business.
“This is an exciting day for Kubota,” said Hironobu Kubota, president of KMA. “As the demand for Kubota products continues to grow in the U.S., our Georgia facilities will be well-positioned to meet our customers’ needs now and well into the future.”
“Kubota’s continued investments in Georgia make it one of our state’s greatest business success stories,” said Lt. Governor Casey Cagle at the groundbreaking ceremony, attended by state and local officials along with Kubota executives and employees.
Kubota began doing business in Georgia more than 40 years ago, with its first operations located in Norcross. In the mid-1980s, Kubota purchased its first office building in Georgia at the current Kubota Tractor Corp. Southeast Division headquarters in Suwanee. Its Georgia operations expanded to include KMA in Gainesville; its national distribution center in Jefferson; and Kubota Industrial Equipment, also in Jefferson, which produces Kubota implements, including loaders and backhoes.
