New Challenges Lead to New Opportunities
No doubt, we live in challenging times. While we’ve made it through the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, inflation, gas prices and supply chain issues are on everyone’s mind right now.
Sea freight costs and shipping container availability have been big challenges for Takeuchi and other global manufacturers. In fact, these challenges have made us rethink how and where we produce our equipment. That’s one reason why we are extremely pleased and excited to announce our first North American manufacturing facility in Moore, South Carolina is officially open for business.
The investment in this new, 156,000-square-foot facility will reduce compact track loader production lead time and establish a more responsive supply system for our North American dealers and their customers. We previously produced all compact track loaders at our head office factory in Sakaki, Nagano, Japan. However, the greatest demand for Takeuchi compact track loaders is right here in North America. We’re now putting production closer to demand and minimizing external costs. Thanks to this new facility, we’ll be able to partner with more domestic suppliers and help alleviate supply chain issues from other worldwide events.
This is a big move for Takeuchi. Bringing some of our manufacturing to the Southeastern United States demonstrates our solid dedication to the North American market and this region we call home. We’re very proud to launch this new venture, and we know it will generate significant benefits for our company, and more importantly, our customers.
Opening this manufacturing facility also helps us fulfill our company commitments of Creation, Challenge and Cooperation. This facility will challenge us to find new and better ways to manufacture our products, create more jobs locally where our products are used, allow us to develop long relationships and better cooperate with the local economy.
As I’ve said in the past, growing Takeuchi’s presence and market share in the United States is a marathon, not a sprint. That said, opening our new compact track loader facility is a huge step toward bigger and better things for Takeuchi, its employees, its dealers and its customers. We continue to seek out new opportunities that can further improve our support and sales abilities. And we’re working hard to provide quality jobs and benefits that give our employees a better work-life balance – and hopefully attract the additional quality team members we need.
Yes, these are challenging times. But they’re also full of opportunity. As we enter the home stretch of 2022, we thank our customers for their support, and we invite them to come along for the ride as we launch this exciting new venture.
