Video: Yokohama Names Design Group

[bitsontherun TMR2Skn0]WEST POINT, Miss. — A little over two months ago, Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) announced its plan to build a new commercial tire manufacturing plant in West Point, Miss.

Today, the company has made public its selection of Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers, PC (KA/AEPC) of Atlanta, Georgia to design the first phase of the project – a 931,000-square-foot factory that will include production, warehousing and operations facilities.

Yokohama will make an investment of $300 million and create approximately 500 jobs as part of the initial phase. Construction is slated for summer 2013, which when completed in October 2015, will provide the factory with a manufacturing capacity of up to one million tires annually.

“We planned for the project to take on a brisk pace and we are extremely pleased it is progressing as scheduled,” said Thomas Masuguchi, YTC’s senior vice president and chief strategy officer. “The demand for Yokohama’s commercial tire products is outpacing our current production capacity and the faster we move along the plant’s timeline, the faster we can increase our supply to meet our dealer requirements. We are confident that Kajima Associates/Architects & Engineers, PC will provide us with design plans for the factory that are aimed at optimum productivity and efficiency.”

“We are honored to have been selected as the design firm,” said Yoshi Koshiyama, KA/AEPC’s Design Director.

“We look forward to being a partner in translating Yokohama’s strategic vision for their new plant to reality by providing extensive services from Building Information Modeling (BIM) to structural and interior design.”

Yokohama Tire Corporation is the North American manufacturing and marketing arm of Tokyo, Japan-based The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., a global manufacturing and sales company of premium tires since 1917. Servicing a network of more than 4,500 points of sale in the U.S., Yokohama Tire Corporation is a leader in technology and innovation. The company’s complete product line includes tires for high-performance, light truck, passenger car, commercial truck and bus, and off-the-road mining and construction applications. For more information on Yokohama’s extensive product line, visit www.yokohamatire.com.

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Yokohama is a strong supporter of the tire care and safety guidelines established by the Rubber Manufacturers Association and the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration. Details can be found at the “Tire Safety” section at www.yokohamatire.com.