Toyo Chooses Bartow County

Following what the company have called “robust overseas demand” Toyo has announced that its new tyre plant will be situated in Bartow County, Georgia in the USA. The site, situated outside the state capital, Atlanta, was chosen above other prospective locations mainly based in the south-eastern United States.

The new facility will use the company’s automated tyre manufacturing system, which enables it, according to Toyo, “to maintain a high standard of quality while realising the flexibility to produce small production runs of multiple lines if tyres.” A new subsidiary company, Toyo Tire North America Inc., will own and operate the manufacturing facility.

The tyre producers plan to spend a total of nearly $400 million on the plant. In the first phase the company will spend $146 million on the plant and hope to begin production in 2006. Initially 350 employees will run the plant. In the second phase the company will invest $127 million and will create 300 more jobs. The third phase will include a further $119 million of investment and will see the work force expand to around 900. When finished, the site will have a total floor area of 96,000 square metres. Toyo estimates that the factory will produce two million passenger and light truck tyres a year. The site in Bartow County will also include a 40,000 square metre warehouse that will service the south-eastern states.