On April 13, less than one year after opening its first production facility in North America, Takeuchi celebrated its 1,000th machine rolling off the assembly line at its facility in Moore, South Carolina. The milestone unit was a TL12R2 compact track loader.
The 156,000-square-foot facility was purchased from Kobelco in April 2022, with the first U.S.-built compact track loader produced in September 2022. Historically, Takeuchi has manufactured CTLs at one of its factories in the Nagano province of Japan. Increased loader demand prompted Takeuchi to manufacture products in the U.S., eliminating the need to ship them from overseas to supply North American dealers and customers.
"It's been quite a journey so far," said Jeff Stewart, president of Takeuchi-US. "Bringing our track loader production to the U.S., while exciting for all of us, required a great deal of planning and collaboration. From locating the right location here in Moore to bringing in all the necessary production equipment to hiring new employees in a tight labor market, it was truly a team effort. The fact that it took us less than seven months to produce our 1,000th machine is remarkable."
As Takeuchi’s global markets expand, the manufacturer expects to export machines from the Moore facility to other countries. Once the Moore facility reaches full production capacity, Takeuchi will retool its Japanese facility to produce compact excavators.
"We started out with just ten employees at this facility a few short months ago,” Ralph Wabnitz, director of manufacturing for Takeuchi-US, added. “Today, we have 117 on staff with a goal of 140 by the end of 2023. We plan to assemble all Takeuchi CTL models here in Moore by the end of 2023. I'm very proud of what our team here has accomplished, and I look forward to seeing what new milestones we're able to achieve in the months and years ahead."
Employees marked the achievement with a company meeting, lunch and commemorative “1,000th Machine” stickers for their hard hats.
Takeuchi
