Joining in the ribbon-cutting ceremony were dealers, employees, vendors, Lake Zurich city officials and other special guests. The celebration took place in the new facility and was preceded by special remarks from Dan Obringer, president of Echo, and Suzanne Branding, mayor of Lake Zurich.

“We consolidated the distribution of Shindaiwa products for North America and Latin America in Lake Zurich last October, but we didn’t have sufficient space in our existing buildings,” Obringer said. “This expansion provides us with the warehouse space we need and allows us to gradually transfer manufacturing of Shindaiwa products from Japan to Lake Zurich so we can manufacture and test all Shindaiwa products here in the same manner as we do for Echo products.”

The warehouse expansion project started in October 2009 and was completed in June. The new warehouse features 12 exterior truck docks, 28-foot ceilings, an insulated roof, energy-efficient indoor motion sensor lighting and clerestory windows to help reduce electrical lighting during daylight hours.

Echo completed the construction of its first building—a 100,000 sq. ft. facility—in Lake Zurich in 1985. Since then, the company has steadily expanded in size, adding additional buildings in 1988, 1995 and 2000. With the completion of the new warehouse, the company’s campus now includes more than 540,000 square feet of office, manufacturing and warehouse facilities. With 700 employees, Echo is the largest employer in the city of Lake Zurich.

“Despite these challenging economic times, our company is growing in terms of products, people and sales.” Obringer said. “We are excited to be able to invest in our world-class facilities, our employees and new technologies in ways that add value for our customers.”

The new plan is to expand the scope of the merger to include streamlining all functions. “We have already made significant progress in gaining synergy with the two companies since our 2007 alliance,” says Chuck Kitazume, President and CEO of Yamabiko. “However, continued weakening of world markets, rising costs and declining exchange rate between the dollar and yen dictate that we accelerate the consolidation process.” Operations of both companies will be merged in Japan by October 1, 2009.

This consolidation will also impact the North American operations of both companies. Shindaiwa will transfer sales and marketing responsibilities for Europe, Asia and the Middle East back to Japan as of April 1, 2009. Eventually, all Shindaiwa operations will be merged with Echo Inc., subsidiary of Kioritz Corp., in Lake Zurich, Ill. Consolidation of the U.S. operations should be completed by October 1, 2009.

“Both ECHO and Shindaiwa are well respected premium brands in the power equipment industry. The merger of these operations will result in an efficient organization with lower costs, allowing both brands to be even more competitive in the North and South American markets,” said Yasushi Asamoto, Chairman of Yamabiko Corp.

Kioritz Corp. and Echo Inc. are global manufacturers and marketers of forestry and agricultural machinery, as well as outdoor power equipment. Shindaiwa Corp. and Shindaiwa Inc. are global manufacturers and marketers of welding machines and generators, agricultural and forestry machinery and outdoor power equipment. All are members of the Yamabiko Group.