Participating in the groundbreaking ceremony were: (from left) Tim Schwalm of Mussett Nichols and Associates, Masaroni Yuasa, president of Aisin Development of America, Taknobu Ito, senior managing director of Aisin Development, Kenji Tsujimura, president of Aisin Holdings of America, Bill Nagle, Crothersville Town Council member, Tadahiko Kohama, executive vice president of Aisin Chemical, Takahiro Ishikawa, president of ACIN, Scott Turpin, president of ADI and a member of the board of managers of ACIN, and Joey Napier, silent guard team leader at ACIN. At the podium is master of ceremonies Tim Carter, manager, operations.
Aisin Chemical Indiana (ACIN) broke ground Wednesday morning in Crothersville Industrial Park to expand the company’s global and local operations. When completed the $9 million expansion that will hire up to 37 new employees by 2013. “It is a celebration for many people and organizations who helped along the way, and continue to help in the future,” said Takahiro Ishikawa, president of Aisin Chemical Indiana LLC.
The new 70,000 square-foot facility will be home to the production of the Liquid Applied Sound Dampening (LASD) product line, and it is set to begin production a year from now. A total of 67 employees are expected to operate the plant.
This is the first manufacturing plant to be built in the U.S. for Aisin Chemical. The plant will be the third to locate in the industrial park south of town.
Ishikawa and others speaking thanked the town of Crothersville and Jackson County for supporting and ultimately helping to create the success of the company.
“We considered the support of the community part of our success,” Kenji Tsujimura, president of Aisin Holdings of America Inc., said, adding that they have seen an increase in demand.
Despite the current economy, and the fact that Aisin’s biggest market is supplying Toyota, which has seen its share of difficulties of late, the company has seen positives.
“We have grown steadily,” said Tadahiko Kohama, executive vice president of Aisin Chemical Co. Ltd. “Although we faced the financial crisis of the Lehman Brothers failure, our company members have worked together as one…and as a result became stronger.” Ishikawa said that the company is expanding its market, and they will begin supplying Subaru in northern Indiana during the first half of next year.
Aisin Chemical Indiana was established in January 2006 as the first North American production site of Aisin Chemical Co. Ltd. products.
Bill Nagle, Crothersville town councilman, said he remembers standing in a soybean field for the groundbreaking of Aisin Drivetrain nearly 20 years ago.
“Construction will start within days of this ceremony,” Ishikawa told the guests. The scheduled completion date is December of this year.
“Our goal is to be the leading manufacturer of Liquid Applied Sound Dampening in North America,” Ishikawa said.
During the ceremony contributions were made to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, as well as the Accelerated Reading program at Crothersville Community Schools. Bob Lucas from the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and Tim Toborg of the Seymour City Police Department and teacher of D.A.R.E. accepted $1,500 checks. Terry Goodin accepted a $2,000 check on behalf of the Crothersville schools.
