YKK breaks ground for Phase 2 expansion

04/20/07
By STEPHANIE MILLER

The Cycle of Goodness at the YKK AP America Dublin plant continues to spiral upward as the completion of Phase 1 of the company’s expansion was completed and groundbreaking for Phase 2 took place Thursday.

About 100 local residents joined plant officials on the company property during the cool, sunny morning yesterday to break ground for another ray of hope for the economy of Laurens County as plans to start construction of Phase 2 got underway, the new 198,000 square-foot expansion that will contain a a third nine-inch extrusion press and the second electrostatic paint system as well as a packing and shipping area to support growth and customer service.

“It’s a great day for a ground breaking,” said Ed Touchberry, manager of public relations and public affairs, who added the groundbreaking is a “historic” event for the company and Laurens County.

“This is a giant step in the growth of YKK AP America,” said Touchberry.

And “giant” is an adequate description of the growth taking place at the facility.

Company officials had announced in March 2006 plans to add over 350,000 square feet to the existing plant creating a third aluminum extrusion line, adding a new paint system with additional shipping, receiving and fabrication space as well as a brake metal forming operation and the addition of an anodizing finishing system for a total building size of over one million square feet. The $80 million total expansion figure includes the cost of the new facilities, renovations to the old plant facility and product sales expenses.

The first phase of the expansion, the Cast House, was completed and began production in January 2007. The next three phases will be completed by 2010 increasing the total number of employees to about 570 people. The first phase of the expansion has already added 54 new jobs at the Dublin site.

After a welcome to the groundbreaking by Touchberry, the crowd was invited inside the newly constructed “Cast” house by Greg Hultquist, vice president of manufacturing for the Dublin plant, for a demonstration and viewing of the new equipment used to make 24-foot aluminum rods used to produce high-quality aluminum extrusion products.

“The bottom line is this equipment is one of the highest efficiency equipments that money can buy today. It’s based on energy efficiency so we can use less natural resources to produce the higher volume and higher quality product,” said Hulquist, who thanked the local business representatives and residents who came out in support of the ground breaking. He said the cast house equipment is also the safest equipment that money can buy to make sure YKK employees work with the best and safest equipment available.
Alex Gregory, president and CEO of YKK Corporation of America, told the group more than half of YKK’s 3,000 employees around the world are located in the state of Georgia. Gregory said he came to Dublin Thursday with a sincere message of appreciation, first to the Laurens County community and secondly to the “great state of Georgia.”

“For more than 40 years YKK and YKK AP have been made to feel welcome in this state and that’s a primary reason we continue to invest here,” Gregory told the group, while addressing Charlie Gatlin, chief of staff and director of external affairs of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, who attended the groundbreaking.

“We sincerely consider you to be our good partners,” said Gregory to the community. He also thanked all the employees of YKK for the good job they’re doing. “I’m so grateful for everyone’s dedication.”

Max Mizota, president of YKK AP America, took the podium and told the crowd the company has expanded several times since locating here.

“Today we officially break ground for phase 2, a $28 million investment, which we hope to have completed by May 2008..,” said Mizota. “The future expansion plans came about because of the hard work and dedication of our employees, as well as the support and cooperation of Dublin and Laurens County officials.”

Mizota said he first wanted to thank his employees in Dublin because when the company began to grow and it it was necessary to go to seven days a week to meet the customer orders the employees came through.

“Our employees stepped up to the challenge,” he said. “We would have lost a lot of customers if our employees had not been willing to make some sacrifices for the good of the company.”

Gatlin told the crowd when he thinks of YKK, he thinks of many good things.

“When I think of YKK I think of good corporate citizenship. I think of determination. I think of flexibility and adaptability in the market place. I think of good quality products and I think of good customer service and success,” said Gatlin, adding all those thoughts go back to 30 years ago when YKK was really on the frontier in Georgia. “But more importantly I think of YKK and all the opportunities they provided to people here in middle Georgia and Dublin particularly and the families who’ve been able to raise children and have a good quality of life.”

Touchberry said YKK was the first Japanese company to locate in Georgia and the first Japanese company to locate in the Southeast.

Dublin Mayor Phil Best told the crowd that after looking on the YKK website he realized YKK is driven by desires - the first one is to serve its customers, the second is to serve the community and the third one is to protect the environment.

“All three of those are very important and it’s obvious you’re doing that here,” said Best, adding the company has the ISO (International Standards Organization) classification of 14001. “Which is to us just numbers, but in the industry it’s an A-plus.” Best said those standards are met by the company’s safety and environmental records and efforts.

Roger Folsom, chairman of the Dublin-Laurens County Development Authority, also thanked YKK as a company and for it’s “Cycle of Goodness” philosophy.

“If you read that philosophy...to see that put into practice....there is no coincidence...in the success of a company that practices that philosophy,” said Folsom.