Kubota opens new R&D Center

Kubota North America Corp. (KNA), Gainesville, Ga., the parent company for Kubota Tractor Corp. (KTC) and Kubota Manufacturing of America (KMA) and Kubota Canada (KCL), recently held a grand opening of its new 280-acre research and development center in Gainesville.

Kubota has invested more than $85 million to bring the new facility online and will open with 70 engineering and technical employees and grow to nearly 200 employees over the next five years.

“Constant investment in our North America infrastructure keeps Kubota evolving and forward-looking,” said Yuichi “Ken” Kitao, president and representative director, Kubota Corp. “We continuously innovate to better meet the needs of our customers — it’s at the core of what we do, it drives our way of thinking and the way we do business. This new R&D center here in Georgia is going to allow us to continue to innovate products and solution advancements with our U.S. and Canada customers’ needs in mind.”

The state-of-the-art center is fully powered by renewable energy and built on the sustainable principles that are in keeping with the company’s global mission to use technology and efficient operations and practices. For example, the center is powered in part by solar sunflowers and the parking lot features a solar-powered roof to support electric vehicle charging stations. The center will house engineering offices, workshops and testing labs, and outside are tracks for testing turf, utility vehicles, tractors and construction equipment.

As the keynote speaker for Kubota’s grand opening event, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said, “The agriculture industry is the biggest business in the State of Georgia, so we are excited that Kubota, a world leader in agriculture equipment, has chosen Georgia as the home of its North American research and development center. It’s great to see Kubota continue to expand their footprint and add more jobs here in Georgia.”

Shingo Hanada, president and CEO, Kubota Tractor and Kubota North America Corps., said, “Kubota is celebrating 50 years of innovation in the U.S., and our goal is to continue to make strategic investments in our infrastructure to develop solutions to ultimately help our dealers and our customers achieve more as we grow together for the next 50 years and beyond.”