Company establishing new headquarters in Texas
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. (April 28, 2014) — The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corp. (Tri-ED) responded to Toyota’s decision to move 1,600 team members out of the company’s Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (TEMA) in Erlanger, Ky.
“Toyota has set a high standard for corporate citizenship, expanding capacity and jobs in Northern Kentucky many times since it first located in the region in 1996,” said Dan Tobergte, president and CEO of Northern Kentucky Tri-ED. “We never like to see a company leave our community. Our understanding is that Toyota’s decision was based on geographic location in Texas between the Sales and Marketing Division from California and the Engineering and Production Support division from Northern Kentucky.”
“In collaboration with Northern Kentucky Tri-ED and other regional partners, we have worked tirelessly to build a diversified economy for the region,” added Brent Cooper, interim CEO of the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “We have a solid business climate to build from and while difficult, we will absorb this loss and work to overcome it.”
There are not many companies that can rival Toyota’s commitment into philanthropic activities, Cooper said.
“We want to thank the local leadership and team members for the company’s generosity and extreme support of volunteerism in the community,” he added.
“Northern Kentucky Tri-ED and our local communities that house the Toyota campus (Erlanger, Boone and Kenton counties) regularly met with Toyota leaders about the company’s presence in Northern Kentucky and no issues with the community were raised,” said Tobergte. “Toyota emphasized to us today in a conference call that Northern Kentucky is a superb community and that events like this sometimes happen when merging operations occur.”
“Toyota has built a rich base of talented and skilled individuals in our community,” said Cooper. “Beginning immediately, we will work with Toyota to ensure that those who wish to remain in the region will find opportunities to match their skillsets.”
Recently released unemployment numbers indicate that Northern Kentucky, Boone (6.3 percent), Campbell (6.3 percent) and Kenton (6.4 percent) counties, had the lowest unemployment numbers in Kentucky.
Toyota has invested more than $1 billion in TEMA and created more than 3,000 jobs, according to its website.
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