FRONT ROW (left to right):
*Gayle Anderson (President & CEO – Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce)
*Bryan Swerbinsky (Vice President & CFO – Deere-Hitachi)
*Scott Sewell (Vice President, Technology Acquisition & Development – Endoscopy – Cook Medical)
*Tony Smits (Human Resource Manager – Deere-Hitachi)
SECOND ROW (left to right):
*Bob Swenson (Area Managing Director – Twin City Quarter)
*Terry Barber (Director of Catering – Twin City Quarter)
*Dan Joyner (Owner – Signs By Tomorrow)
*Jill Atherton (Vice President, Economic & Community Development – Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce)
Deere-Hitachi is a 50/50 Joint Venture between Deere and Company based in Moline, Illinois and Hitachi Construction Machinery based in Tokyo Japan. Deere-Hitachi manufactures both Deere and Hitachi brand Hydraulic Excavators. The success of our joint venture can be and should be attributed to our dedicated employees, our supportive parent companies and the support we have had from Forsyth County. Without the collaborative efforts of all of these elements we would not have had the opportunity to celebrate our 25 year anniversary in 2013.
Deere and Hitachi have had a business relationship since the mid 60’s. Shortly after the joint venture agreement was signed in 1988, our site began manufacturing booms and arms in Kernersville. The founding fathers of the company created a few core values in the beginning to launch a culture would allow us the opportunity to grow and establish ourselves as one of the best places to work in the community.
Our core values are Safety, Integrity, Quality and Kaizen. Said another way we wanted to build and deliver a quality product to our customers in a safe and efficient manner. With much early success in making booms and arms we earned the opportunity to build the complete excavator in 1998. This was when we launched our Base USA project. We started building two models that year, the 20 and 23 ton machines. With the success of our 20/23 ton machines we earned the opportunity to make the 12/16 ton machines in 2003. 10 years later we are building 16 unique models. We sincerely believe this success has been driven by our core values.
On October 5th 2012, we announced the largest factory expansion in our history. We announced that we would invest approximately $98 million dollars to expand our existing facility and build a new assembly factory adjacent to our existing property. Today, we are pleased to communicate that our new assembly factory is up and running. We will continue with new equipment installation and modifications to our existing facility throughout 2014.
Our project could not be successful without the support and efforts from first and foremost our employees, but also the support that we have received from our parent companies, the State of North Carolina, Forsyth County, and the Town of Kernersville. Without the support and efforts of all of these entities pulling on the rope in the same direction, we would probably not be here today speaking before you.
On behalf of the Senior Leadership Team of Deere-Hitachi we want to thank the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce and the Twin City Quarter for recognizing our accomplishments and being selected as the recipient of the “Salute to Business Award”.
