Yamaha closing plant

[Toobist]

I'm afraid the rumours were true. I just saw this:

Yamaha to close Kentwood plant in April
Wednesday, February 07, 2007

By Julia Bauer

The Grand Rapids Press

KENTWOOD -- Musical instruments will no longer be built in Kentwood, ending a 33-year run for Yamaha Musical Products Inc.

Workers learned today that the Japanese-owned company will close its doors April 27, succumbing to fierce competition from China and other Asian production sites.

The plant at 3445 East Paris Ave. SE employs nearly 200 and makes woodwinds and brass and percussion instruments.

In 2003, Yamaha moved its U.S. headquarters from Kentwood to Buena Park, Calif. Now, it will close the local plant and another in Thomaston, Ga., cutting a total of 380 jobs.

"We must take this action in light of market realities and new, fierce international competition," said Yoshihiro Doi, president of Yamaha Corporation of America.

Manufacturing will shift to Yamaha plants in Asia. Yamaha began building wind instruments in the U.S. in 1974, when it opened its first plant in Grand Rapids.

In 1989, it opened a new state-of-the-art factory in Kentwood, and built 5 million wind instruments in two years. The custom shop for the U.S. market opened here in 2001. That department will be relocated to the California headquarters.

The plant closings are part of a long-term plan, Yamaha said in a news release, "in an increasingly aggressive global musical products market."

[Chuck(G)]

This comes as no real surprise; Yamaha's had a big operation at Tianjin for years.