Polaris plans to build a new production facility in Huntsville, Alabama to provide additional capacity and flexibility as the company continues to experience rapid growth. Located Southwest of Huntsville City Center, the 600,000 square-foot facility will focus on off-road vehicle production.
Polaris selected Huntsville due to its skilled workforce, history of technology and innovation, existing utility infrastructure, and strong local and state resources supporting economic development. The 453-acre Huntsville site offers Polaris close proximity to its key customer base in the Southeast U.S. and strong logistics network.
“This new facility will complement our already strong and growing North American manufacturing footprint by reducing pressure on our existing facilities and enable each to remain focused on their current product lines as we continue to meet the demand for our innovative, quality products.” said Ken Pucel, Executive Vice President of Operations, Engineering, and Lean, Polaris Industries Inc.
Polaris will design and develop a lean and flexible facility to drive continuous improvement from the start. The new plant in Alabama will become part of our North American plant network and will reduce complexity within the existing plant network and enable logistics optimization. The facility will have multiple assembly lines providing flexibility to quickly replenish demand and support continued product innovations. Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, the plant will support several core processes including, vehicle assembly, chassis and body painting, welding, fabrication and injection molding. At full capacity, the site will employ at least 1,700 people.
Polaris will break ground on the Huntsville facility in the first quarter of 2015 with completion slated for early in the second quarter of 2016. Production will begin shortly thereafter.