On hand for the ceremonies were several KTH executives including Toshio “Tim” Inoue, president, KTH Leesburg Products, LLC. And Tatsuro Kaneko, manager, transplant sales, AIDA Company which built the press.
Kaneko and Inoue both shared a few words before officially pushing the lever to activate the new press for production.
“Thank you for joining us today to commission our newest stamping press,” said Gene Cleveland, administrative manager, KTH Leesburg Products, LLC. “The addition of the press is a very important part of our expansion plan that was formerly announced in January of 2003.”
Company officials announced in December of 2002 that the $60 million expansion would more than double the size of the building and also the workforce. Company officials originally estimated the expansion at approximately 145,000 square feet, but ended up with plans to expand by 167,900 square feet for the manufacturing area and 172,000 square feet for the building size itself. The new construction also will bring about 115-135 new jobs to the Leesburg facility, which will be known as K.L.P. Products Inc.
Groundbreaking for that expansion was held last January and the area will be in used in the next few months.
The Leesburg plant manufactures component parts for the Honda Odyssey Mini Van and supplies them to the Honda Plant in Lincoln.
The expansion brings with it 107 new robotic welders, according to plant manager John Boyer. adding 12 new main lines and several sublines to feed them.
The new addition will expand production by 650 units a day.
Plans to build KTH in Leesburg surfaced in June of 2000, and KTH-Leesburg Products began production in its 170,000-square-foot facility in October of 2001. It produced about 500 component parts daily at that time and employed less than 100
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