Canon Business Machines to Expand Tijuana Plant

Canon Business Machines, a Costa Mesa-based U.S. subsidiary of the Japanese electronics giant, said this week that it plans to significantly expand the Tijuana manufacturing plant it opened last summer.

Since June, Canon has been manufacturing printed circuit boards and ribbon cassettes for electronic typewriters at a 60,000-square-foot facility in a business park in the Fundadores district in southern Tijuana. The plant employs about 90 people, Canon’s director of administration David Shiffman said.

Canon now says it will add 120,000 square feet of plant space by the middle of next year and bring its total payroll in Tijuana to more than 220 by the end of 1990.

The expansion will be carried out partly on 3.3 acres Canon recently acquired and partly on land it acquired when it made its initial entry into the Tijuana maquiladora scene. Shiffman said Canon’s experience in Mexico so far has gone “very well.”

Shiffman said the expansion could lead to Canon assembling completed typewriters in Tijuana instead of just components. Canon now makes only one model of electronic typewriter for the U.S. market, but may add several models in coming years, he said.

Sean Doyle, a broker with Coldwell Banker International of San Diego, which represented both buyer and seller in the Canon land transaction, said interest in maquiladoras on the part of U.S., Japanese and other foreign manufacturers has picked up in recent weeks after a slight downturn earlier this year. Doyle attributed the decline to political uncertainty in Mexico.

“The success Canon has had in the first phase is evident in the current expansion plans,” he said. “It’s also a good sign for additional Japanese and other offshore investment” in Tijuana.

Doyle said other foreign manufacturers operating plants near Canon’s in the Fundadores area include Scripto-Tokai, a Japanese manufacturer of disposable cigarette lighters; Altus, a U.S. battery manufacturer, and Cast Alloys, a U.S. golf-club maker.

Shiffman said the expansion of Canon’s Tijuana facility will not negatively affect jobs at Canon’s Costa Mesa plant. In fact, payroll at the Orange County plant has nearly doubled to 390 workers over the past year, he said.