Spartan Motors breaks ground on $5.5 million expansion

Joined by top officials from Isuzu North America, Spartan Motors President and CEO Daryl Adams and Steve Guillaume, Specialty Vehicles Division President, broke ground Tuesday, April 19 on what will be a $5.5 million expansion for the Charlotte-based company.
Plant 12, which will begin operations in 2017, will manufacture the new Isuzu F-Series trucks, expanding upon a relationship Spartan established with Isuzu in 2011.
“Today demonstrates the progress and momentum that Spartan Motors has underway,” Adams said.
He said the new 85,000 square-foot manufacturing plant is an important piece of a multi-year transition that Spartan Motors is undertaking.
“This new building is going to be flexible so we can run the current Isuzu vehicles as well as the new F-Series vehicle,” Adams said. “Part of the change that Spartan Motors is undertaking is a Spartan production system. That’s going to help us continue the momentum forward, along with our standard quality system that will be at every location.”
Guillaume reiterated the momentum that the partnership with Isuzu represents for Spartan Motors.
“This new plant represents the next stage of our expansion with Isuzu,” Guillaume said. “We’re very excited.”
Guillaume said the new state-of-the-art facility will be constructed with a lot of flexibility to handle multiple product lines. It’s primary focus initially, however, will be the Isuzu F-Series trucks.
Shaun Skinner, President of Isuzu Commercial Truck of America, said the trust gained over the course of the past five years made it an easy decision to allow Spartan to produce the all new 2018 Isuzu FTR.
“We have a long-standing relationship with Spartan,” Skinner said. “About five years ago we set forth to produce the gas truck that would be distributed here in the U.S. and in Canada in plant 5 and we started with aspirations that the volume would be about 4,000 units a year. This year, Spartan will produce over 10,000 gas trucks here in Charlotte that will be distributed throughout the United States and Canada.”
The City of Charlotte and State of Michigan worked closely with Spartan to ensure the expansion was built at the manufacturer’s primary campus in Charlotte.
“We want to thank our partners at the City of Charlotte and the MEDC for their collaboration and support,” Adams stated in a press release announcing the extended partnership with Isuzu. “We look forward to further expansion of our manufacturing footprint and bringing additional new jobs to Michigan.”