Otsuka Chemical America, Inc. Opens First U.S. Manufacturing Facility

Otsuka Chemical America, Inc. recently celebrated the grand opening of its new manufacturing facility in Griffin, Ga. After breaking ground last July, Otsuka’s first U.S. manufacturing facility and the company’s third one worldwide is now complete.

“From its conception, Otsuka’s first U.S. Terracess plant has been a tremendous undertaking of global scale. The success of this project is a testament to the planning and execution of all our staff and partners,” said Hiroyoshi Tosa, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Otsuka Chemical America, Inc.

“The new facility will deliver unparalleled quality and service to customers in the Americas and Europe, and we look forward to building on Otsuka’s three decades of experience as a key supplier to the automotive friction industry,” he added.

Otsuka selected Gray Construction to provide design-build services on its new 50,707 s.f. manufacturing facility. Otsuka’s Georgia facility manufactures Terracess, a titanate material used to create friction on automotive brake pads. It’s located on a 35-acre site at Georgia’s first eco-friendly park, and the company expects to have an annual production capacity of 2,000 metric tons.

The new U.S. Otsuka plant has created more than 30 jobs.

As a nationally ranked engineering, architecture and construction firm, Gray has over 55 years of experience in manufacturing, automotive, food and beverage, distribution, hospitality and retail facility construction. Currently, Gray has several large projects that are underway or recently completed including: a Michelin Earthmover tire manufacturing plant in Anderson, S.C.; a Caterpillar Inc. manufacturing facility near Athens, Ga.; a Siemens gas turbine plant in Charlotte, N.C.; an automotive exhaust manufacturing facility for Newman Technology, Inc., in Albertville, Ala.; a manufacturing plant for ZF Transmissions in Gray Court, S.C.; and a Champion Petfoods Kitchen in Auburn, Ky.

If you have manufacturing plant construction needs, please contact Phil Seale, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing/Food & Beverage Markets at pseale@gray.com. Or, you could also reach out to our Japanese plant construction group through Hideo Ito, Executive Vice President, at hito@gray.com or Shigeru “Shig” Masuko, Regional Manager, Tokyo, Japan at smasuko@gray.com.