Toyota Plans to Double Kentucky Plant Output : Autos: The Scott County facility will gain 1,500 jobs and an $800-million infusion.
Toyota Motor Manufacturing USA Inc. will almost double its production, add at least 1,500 jobs and invest $800 million more at its central Kentucky plant, company officials announced today.
Construction for the expansion will begin in the spring, and production of an estimated 200,000 additional Camry models should begin by the end of 1993.
Toyota now builds about 220,000 Camry models each year at the plant, about 15 miles northwest of Lexington.
About 3,450 people, including administrative personnel, now work at the site. With the expansion, Toyota’s total investment in Scott County will reach about $2 billion by 1993, said Alex Warren, senior vice president for the company.
Toyota President Fujio Cho said the expansion is a tribute to the work force at the Scott County plant.
Cho said the expansion of Camry production at Georgetown will allow the company to consider further exports of the model.
The company already exports Camrys to Taiwan and has announced plans to export up to 40,000 right-hand-drive Camrys and up to 100,000 engines to Japan starting in 1992.
Warren said the expansion should also increase the company’s purchases of supplies from other U.S. companies.
Toyota purchased about $70 million in U.S.-made parts and materials in 1988, and that will increase to more than $700 million by next year.
Toyota officials have spent the last several months scouting locations for a new automobile assembly plant.
Scott County has always been on the short list of prospective sites, in large part because of the availability of land. The company now uses only about 500 of the site’s 1,300 acres.
Toyota announced that it would build the initial plant, its first wholly owned U.S. assembly center, in December, 1986. The plant brought an investment of $800 million and attracted state incentives valued at $135 million in land, training and site work. The first cars rolled off the assembly line in May, 1988.
