Kawasaki Engines to Open New Missouri Plant
Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing Corp. is opening a new facility to build Kawasaki engines for lawn, garden and industrial applications in Boonville, Mo. The company held a grand opening ceremony at the facility with the attendance of Kawasaki leaders, representatives from the governor’s office and others. The Boonville plant is the company’s second location in Missouri, joining the Maryville operations, which were established in 1989.
The new facility will add to the total statewide staff of nearly 1,200 based at the Maryville plant, which produces 18 different engine models ranging from 14.5HP to 38.5HP. Slated to begin production in summer 2022, the Boonville facility is currently being retrofitted and will initially include approximately 250 employees.
“This expansion of production capabilities for our engines is a significant step forward in our continuing ability to provide superior quality engines in the quantities needed to meet expanding market demand,” said Nelson Wilner, vice president of Kawasaki Engines Division.
Kawasaki Engines, a division of Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A., distributes gasoline engines for landscape, industrial, and consumer markets. The division is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Mich. It sells to and services customers through a network of OEMs, distributors, and more than 7,700 independent dealers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, select countries in Central and South America, and the U.S. Trust Territories of the Pacific, including Guam.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.