More jobs coming to Griffin

More jobs

coming to Griffin

Governor Sonny

Perdue announced that Perkins Engines Company Limited, a Caterpillar Inc.

company and a world leader in the manufacture of off-highway diesel and

gas engines along with its long-time small engine partner, Ishikawajima

Shibaura Machinery Ltd (ISM) will open a new small engines manufacturing

facility in Griffin.

" We

in Georgia have enjoyed a long and successful relationship with

Caterpillar and I am very pleased to welcome another Caterpillar facility

to those that already call Georgia home," said Governor Perdue. "Having

a global market leader like Caterpillar choose Georgia over and over again

speaks to our success in creating an economic environment where companies

can be successful. The high-quality jobs this project will create are

great news for Griffin and Spalding County."

In addition

to this new Perkins facility and the existing facility in Griffin, Caterpillar

also has manufacturing operations in Alpharetta, Jefferson, LaGrange,

Thomasville and Toccoa. The company operates a Financial Products facility

and a Logistics Services operation in Atlanta.

Production

at the Griffin location will start in summer 2004 with approximately 25

employees, ramping up to an expected 100. The plant will produce the Perkins

400 Series, a range of two, three and four-cylinder, liquid-cooled, naturally

aspirated and turbo-charged indirect-injection engines. The Griffin facility

will mirror the Perkins headquarters in Peterborough, England, which also

produces 400 Series engines.

In planning

to open a U.S. facility, Perkins Engines worked closely with Georgia's

Department of Industry, Trade & Tourism and the Spalding County Development

Authority. Perkins ultimately chose the Griffin location because of its

skilled workforce and the opportunity to enhance customer service through

improved logistics.

"Employees

of the Caterpillar Griffin Power Systems facility have a proven expertise

in succeeding in this challenging global market, and Caterpillar is looking

to expand on that with a larger presence in the community," said

Mike Baunton, Caterpillar vice president and president of Perkins Engines.

"When coupled with the outstanding logistics hub available in Atlanta,

we couldn't imagine a more ideal location for the first Perkins facility

in the United States."

David Luckie,

executive director of the Griffin-Spalding Development Authority, said,

"We are extremely excited about having Perkins Shibaura Engines here

in Spalding County. The international influence of companies based in

England and Japan will be a tremendous addition to our community."

Luckie added, "We appreciate Governor Perdue's calling on Perkins

when he was in the United Kingdom earlier this summer and his active involvement

in helping to attract industry to our community."

Perkins and

Japanese manufacturer Ishikawajima Shibaura machinery, Ltd. (ISM) launched

a joint venture company, Perkins Shibaura Engines, Ltd., and a manufacturing

facility in 1996 adjacent to the Perkins manufacturing plant in Peterborough,

UK. The original product was the Perkins 100 Series engine.

ISM has been

manufacturing agricultural equipment and engines since the 1940s and is

one of Japan's leading suppliers of small engines and tractors. ISM is

part of Ishikawajima Harima Industries - (IHI), one of Japan's largest

industrial companies.

Perkins Engines

is a wholly owned subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. and the world's leading

supplier of off-highway diesel and gas engines in the 4 - 2000 kW (5 -

2600 hp) market. Perkins' key strength is its ability to tailor engines

precisely to meet customers' requirements. More than 300,000 engines are

manufactured every year that's one every minute to 21,000 different specifications.

For more than

75 years Caterpillar Inc. has been building the world's infrastructure

and, in partnership with its worldwide dealer network, is driving positive

and sustainable change in every continent. With 2002 sales and revenues

of $20.15 billion, Caterpillar is a technology leader and the world's

leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and

natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. More information is available

at https://www.cat.com

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