Honda has announced today ( Feb. 22,2013) in an internal email to 50 of its employees that they are moving their North American corporate unit from their current location in Torrance,CA to Marysville, Ohio, home to the Honda Accord and Acura TL.
According to Jeffrey Smith, a spokesperson for Honda,
“ The move to Ohio will see about 50 employees relocating from Torrance to Marysville. Torrance will still be the home base for U.S. Sales and Marketing."
Honda’s history in Torrance began in 1990 when the Tokyo based company decided to set up shop in sunny Southern California, but after 23 years, shifts in company organization now see its North American Headquarter’s move closer to its biggest North American plant. The North American market is Honda’s biggest profit center and strategies are in motion to bring the company into a leaner and more efficient organization.
Honda’s Executive Vice President Tetsuo Iwamura stated that,
"These organizational changes will improve the speed of decision-making and the efficiency of our business operations.”
In a day in age, where the speed of decision making is vital to the competitiveness of a company, this move seems all the more logical.
Honda has admittedly been confident about its plans for vehicle production as well,
“With an investment of more than $2.2 billion in its North American operations over the past two years, Honda will increase automobile production capacity in North America from the current 1.63 million to 1.92 million units per year in 2014. As a result, in the coming years, annual exports of Honda and Acura automobiles from the U.S. are expected to far surpass the company's previous single-year export record of 105,511 vehicles set in 1994.”
Honda is trading in its sunny weather and flip flops for long stretches of country roads and jean jackets. Let’s hope this move will find the company more competitive than ever and cost savings to trickle down to the American consumer.
Source: The Detroit News
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