Ground broke on Monday morning for a $400 million automatic transmission plant in Cibolo, Texas that will employee 900 workers by 2023.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — along with Guadalupe County and Cibolo officials — joined executives of a Japanese company for the event off I-10 this morning.
Kazuhisa Ozaki is the director of Aisin AW, the Japanese parent company of AW Texas.
He explained through an interpreter why they chose Cibolo for the plant.
"We did a lot of investigation, including the relation with Toyota,” he said. “We've also looked at what kind of people we could hire and that is the conclusion that this was the best place for us to have a new site.”
The plant is expected to be in production by September 2021 with hiring to come before then.
Ozaki said the area has the skilled workers they need and the company loves Texas
"The food is great. And it's a great place, a warm place for Japanese companies to come," he said.
The company is a key supplier of the San Antonio Toyota plant, which is another reason they moved here.
Gov. Abbott said Japanese companies respect the way business is done in Texas and know there is no better state in the nation for them to grow and profit.
Abbott recalled a recent visit to the Governor’s Mansion in Austin by Akoi Toyoda, the president of Toyota Manufacturing.
“This leader and namesake of the Toyota company, when he shows up at the Governor’s Mansion was wearing a Buc-ee’s t-shirt,” Abbott said.
Monday's groundbreaking for the A-W Texas auto transmission plant in Cibolo is the latest big win for a formerly small town.
Mayor Stosh Boyle said Cibolo is ten times the size it was in 2003, growing from 3,000 to 33,000.
He said they want to enhance downtown Cibolo and do a good job of planning future development to maintain quality of life.
Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at Brian@TPR.org and on Twitter at @TPRBrian.
