Toyo Georgia facility rolls 5 millionth tire off the line

Toyo’s plant in White, Ga., which also manufactures the firm’s Nitto line, has now produced more than 5 million tires since opening in December of 2005.

“We are proud to have achieved this historic milestone in our company,” says Jim Hawk, North American president and CEO. “It is with great thanks to the dedicated employees of this company,” he adds, “and to the support we receive from the State of Georgia.”

Toyo executives consider the facility to be “the most technologically advanced” factory in its network of global plants.

Located in the Peach State’s Bartow County, it utilizes a highly automated and proprietary tire production system called Advanced Tire Operation Module (ATOM). Resulting in highly consistent, highly uniform tires, according to Hawk, the system is designed for multi-product, small-lot production with reduced lead times.

An expansion project completed last year doubled the facility’s physical size to about 1.72 million square feet.

Current annual capacity is 2.5 million tires. Plans are in motion to install new machines and further increase production capabilities this summer. As production ramps up, the company intends to hire more workers from the local area.

Output is projected to be 4 million tires by 2012.

“North America continues to be the most important market for both the Toyo Tires and Nitto brands,” says Kenji Nakakura, president and CEO of parent-firm Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd. in Osaka, Japan.

“Our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, strategically located in the United States, benefits both dealers and consumers by delivering our premium tires faster while reducing overall costs,” Nakakura notes. “I can confidently say, as a company we will continue to invest in the United States.”

The Georgia plant is ISO 9001:2000 certified, and in 2009 state officials honored the factory with its Georgia Manufacturer of the Year award for firms with more than 500 employees.

Tire produced at the factory include the Toyo Proxes ST II, Open Country M/T, Open Country A/T, and the Proxes 4 along with Nitto’s Grappler, NT 420S and NT 555.

Nakakura says the company plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in the Jiangsu Province of China to produce car and light truck tires for an emerging Chinese market.

For more information, visit www.toyotires.com and www.nittotire.com.