Area 'great location' for Toyota plant: manufacturers' association

03/02/2005

BY Vincent Ball
EXPOSITOR STAFF / BRANTFORD

The Brantford-Cambridge area would be a great location for Toyota Motor Corp.’s next North American plant, says the president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.

"I think we've got a very good chance of getting it," Gerry Fedchun said Tuesday. “Certainly Cambridge and Ontario is a great place and Brantford is a great place. From a business viewpoint, it makes sense for them to have a new plant close to their existing ones because it would allow them to operate it efficiently.

"They could bridge the management, workers and talent."

The area also has a wonderful infrastructure in place, a skilled workforce and the upper levels of government appear poised to help facilitate new investment, which puts the area on a level playing field with other jurisdictions, Fedchun said.


Toyota has two plants north of Highway 401 in Cambridge. The company is thought be looking at a location in the south part of Cambridge, closer to Brantford.

The Cambridge area has been good to Toyota, Fedchun said.

Rumours have been circulating for months that Brantford was being considered as a site for what would become the auto giant’s seventh manufacturing centre in North America. The rumours picked up again recently when a Tokyo newspaper reported that Toyota was close to a decision concerning the plant.

Media reports have indicated that the plant would be worth more than $1 billion.

Fedchun said it has also been reported that Toyota wants to have the plant up and running by 2008. If that’s the case, a decision on location would have to be made within the next six months.

Landing an automobile assembly plant is a huge economic boom for a community because it creates thousands of jobs, both directly and indirectly. As well, a large manufacturing plant of any kind also generates millions in tax revenue.

A spokesman for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. said Toyota has a corporate philosophy of building (factories) where they sell.

The company also has a record of building in areas where they have enjoyed strong sales and Toyota has done extremely well in Canada and in Cambridge, said Greig Mordue, assistant general manager of corporate planning.

Still, Mordue said he’s “not aware of any imminent plans” to build a new assembly plant in North America.