The business of planning, locating, designing and building new factories is a multi-year project one that can take three even as many as five years to complete depending on local building code restrictions, weather delays, and other impediments. During that time, the winds of business can shift abruptly turning a once great idea on its head.

For Toyota, the opening of a new factory in Ontario this month is being done with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the factory represents an excellent chance for the Japanese automaker to aid the local economy and spread goodwill among Canadians along with building passenger vehicles that consumers really want like the popular Toyota RAV4 sport/utility model. On the other hand, business is down and demand isn’t what it was as recently as this past summer, meaning Toyota needs to step carefully when ramping up production.

Located in Woodstock, the plant represents a CDN$1.1 billion dollar investment by Toyota. It is the first all new plant to be built in Ontario over the past twenty years and the company has spent tens of millions of dollars training new workers. The Woodstock plant is the only location outside of Japan where the RAV4 is built.

“Having the best workers helps attract the best jobs, and that’s why we’re so pleased to work with Toyota. Our government will continue working with the auto industry to secure good jobs for Ontario families,” said Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

As of this writing, Toyota hasn’t said how many people will be employed at the plant, though the company does employ 4500 workers at its Cambridge plant where it builds several models including the Toyota Corolla and Matrix as well as the Lexus EX 350.

In 2007 Toyota passed General Motors to become the world’s largest automaker. Selling cars under the Toyota, Lexus and Scion nameplates, Toyota sells approximately nine million passenger vehicles worldwide. It is the second largest seller of vehicles in the United States, a market where year to date sales are down for all automakers. In Canada, the downturn is more recent, with Toyota sales near last year’s figures.



By: Toyota USA Blog

Toyotausablog.com

No TweetBacks yet. (Be the first to Tweet this post)