 Toyota's 126-acre Columbus, Indiana, campus has 1,015,843 sqft. (93,864 sqm) of facilities. |
Toyota Material Handling USA (TMHU) plans to move its North American headquarters to Columbus from Irvine, California over several years.
TMHU's existing Columbus offices are physically connected to the extensive facilities of Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing Inc (TIEM). That location began operations in 1990, employs about 800 and produces the majority of Toyota forklifts sold in North America.
"Bringing all TMHU associates under one roof will allow us to be more responsive to customer and dealer needs," says Jeff Rufener, who joined TMHU as president on 21 October. "Being on the Columbus campus with our forklift plant will result in more synergies and improved communications between sales and marketing and manufacturing."
TMHU employs 72 associates in Irvine and 53 in Columbus and disclosed the plans on 12 April.
The relocation and eventual closing of the Irvine office will occur in phases, beginning in five or six months.
TMHU intends to offer relocation opportunities to a majority of Irvine associates and severance and job placement assistance to those not moving.
TMHU established its headquarters in Irvine in March 2002 and now occupies 36,000 sqft. (3,344 sqm) in the Jamboree Center, an Irvine Co property. Sale of Toyota forklifts in North America began 45 years ago.
The successful Toyota forklift brand has more than 70 authorised dealers and more than 220 dealership locations throughout North America.
Columbus, a highly regarded small city, is about 40 mi. (64 km) south of Indianapolis, the capital of the state of Indiana.
The 126-acre TIEM site in Woodside Industrial Park in Columbus has a total of 1,015,843 sqft. (93,864 sqm) of facilities.
The materials handling division of parent company Toyota Industries Corp of Kariya, Japan conducted similar relocation programs in Takahama, Japan in 2007 and Mjölby, Sweden in 2010 to align sales and marketing functions with forklift manufacturing plants.
The management and organisation structure Toyota Material Handling North America oversees the operations of TMHU, TIEM and Raymond Corp in Greene, New York.