Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers on Friday announced Yaskawa America Inc. will invest some $180 million to expand its footprint in the Badger State, including a new location for its North American headquarters that will create more than 700 new jobs.
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The company plans to expand its current facility in Franklin, Wisconsin, about 15 miles southwest of Milwaukee and a little more than 40 miles north of its current operations in Waukegan, Illinois. The project is expected to be completed in the next eight to 10 years.
Yaskawa is consolidating its Illinois and Wisconsin facilities into a new 800,000-square-foot campus that will house its headquarters, training and lab facilities, packaging, and robotics and semiconductor production. According to the company, it is experiencing significant growth driven by its robotics, motion control, AC drives, and solar inverter businesses.
According to Dennis Fitzgerald, VP of customer satisfaction at Yaskawa America, many employees at the Waukegan facility live in the northern part of Illinois, so their commute to the new location will likely be shorter. For those living a little further south, Yaskawa is looking for opportunities to relocate workers interested in a change of scenery.
Given the project timeframe, which Fitzgerald said could be as short as six years, some associates will likely retire before the new headquarters comes online. However, the company wants as many workers as possible to join the new site in Franklin.
Over the next six years, the majority of the manufacturing work in Franklin will be for Yaskawa's drives and motion products division. However, in the next 10 to 20 years, Fitzgerald says robotics will grow to a significant part of the company's Wisconsin operations. The robots will be shipped directly to customers or integrated into production lines at Yaskawa's Ohio facility.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation is supporting the project with up to $18 million in performance-based Enterprise Zone tax credits contingent upon the number of jobs created and the amount of capital investment.
In 2023, Yaskawa paid some $20 million for a 200,000-square-foot building in Franklin. The facility was previously occupied by a packaging company, according to WPR.
The company's global parent, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, has been in business for some 110 years, and the company has operated in the U.S. for nearly 60 years.
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