PLYMOUTH, Mich.—Toyoda Gosei Co. Ltd. is expanding in the U.S., and changing at the top.
The firm will merge its two facilities in Brighton, Mich., and Howell, Mich., into one larger facility in Brighton. Toyoda Gosei dedicated the new plant on May 12, which already consists of the Brighton business.
Consolidation of production equipment from the two plants will be complete by 2017. The new facility has a floor area of about 1.5 times the two previous plants combined, the company said.
The firm said it will add at least 36 jobs, bringing total employment to 400. Toyoda Gosei invested about $11 million in the expansion.
Toyoda Gosei produces plastic fuel tubes from nylon at the facility.
“We acquired this company in 2000, and at the time the turnover was only $6 million, but last year we achieved $96 million in turnover, so it is growing very fast,” Toyoda Gosei President Tadashi Arashima said at the firm's technical center in Plymouth. “We will try to expand this business further in the future, so we needed a bigger facility. We hope to see steady growth of our plastic fuel tubes business.”
Arashima will be promoted to chairman of the board at the firm's June board of directors meeting with Naoki Miyazaki taking over the president's duties. Masayoshi Ichikawa was promoted to executive vice president and representative director.
Arashima said the day-to-day responsibility for the firm will fall under Miyazaki's jurisdiction as president. Arashima will oversee the entire operation and chair the board meetings in addition to representing Toyoda Gosei in its various automotive industry related associations.
“The company is involved with many automotive parts supplier associations, rubber industry associations and Toyota Group meetings,” Arashima said. “The chairman spends time in these areas. For the past year, I didn't have a chairman, so I had to do both things. It was quite a burden.”