techology Archives

Toyota Material Handling, a leader in material handling solutions, celebrated a significant milestone with the groundbreaking of a new 295,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at its Columbus, Indiana headquarters. This $100 million expansion is dedicated to producing electric forklifts, underscoring Toyota’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and customer satisfaction.

Commitment to Innovation and Sustainability

Tony Miller, Senior Vice President for Engineering, Operations & Strategic Planning at Toyota Material Handling, highlighted the strategic importance of this expansion. “Electric products are more popular than ever, and we are committed to keeping up with increased demand. This new factory will allow us to deliver those electric units to customers faster,” said Miller.

Economic and Job Growth

The project, set to be completed by June 2026, will create 85 new jobs. Indiana Governor Eric J. Holcomb praised Toyota’s continued investment in the region, noting the positive impact on the local economy and workforce. “Toyota’s been a cherished partner and career cultivator for the last 35 years, and we look forward to strengthening our bond even more,” said Holcomb.

Longstanding Community Partnership

Since establishing its presence in Columbus in 1990, Toyota has been a cornerstone of the local community, contributing significantly to the region’s economic development. This new facility is the latest in a series of investments that have expanded Toyota’s Columbus footprint to nearly 1.8 million square feet, more than six times its original size.

Future-Focused Growth

Brett Wood, President & CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, emphasized the company’s proactive approach to growth and innovation. “We hope this announcement shows our industry-leading dealer network and our customers that we are preparing for the next decade. This investment signifies our commitment to the North American market, the state of Indiana, and our dealers and customers.”

Enhancing Employee Wellness

Toyota’s commitment to its employees is evident in its previous investments, including the state-of-the-art Toyota Recreational Complex (T+Rex), which offers health and wellness facilities to its workforce.

Strengthening Local Ties

Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon expressed her enthusiasm for Toyota’s continued growth and positive impact on the community. “Toyota is a wonderful community partner providing financial resources and volunteers to organizations throughout the community. We look forward to this expansion and our continued relationship with Toyota.”

Conclusion

With this expansion, Toyota Material Handling continues to lead the way in the material handling industry, driving economic growth, job creation, and sustainable innovation in the Columbus region and beyond.

Feature management platform, LaunchDarkly, announced they will invest big bucks along with Redpoint, Vertex Ventures, DFJ, and Uncork Capital. The company confirmed the investment will support company initiatives in risk management while increasing efficiencies.

“Our goal is to help product development teams worldwide, from small teams to huge enterprises, to keep up with the speed of innovation while reducing risk,” said Edith Harbaugh, CEO and co-founder of LaunchDarkly. “We believe the future is built on software, and the additional capital will allow us to further impact the world of feature management and meet the needs of our customers in delivering fast results and excellence to their own customers.”

“In the past year the LaunchDarkly platform has evolved both in scale (we now see over 200 billion feature flag requests per day) and capability– we’ve become a key piece of the puzzle for software teams practicing continuous delivery,” said John Kodumal, CTO and co-founder of LaunchDarkly. “This latest funding will help us scale the platform even further to meet the growing demand we’re seeing in the market and build new functionality to help our customers deliver better software experiences to their customers.”

This announcement closely follows the company’s confirmation of the hosting of the upcoming April Trajectory conference for software development professionals. The conference will be held in Oakland, California from April 8-9.

“The sheer speed of innovation today makes it more difficult than ever for enterprises to release product changes quickly and reliably,” said Ethan Kurzweil, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Having invested in developer platform companies for nearly a decade, it was instantly clear that LaunchDarkly has the product and market vision to be the central platform for feature management. We are extremely excited to partner with Edith and the rest of the talented team at LaunchDarkly!”

“The LaunchDarkly platform enabled BMW to go from 0-60 in one Agile Release Cycle”, said Chuck Medhurst, President & GM at BMW Technology. “The ability for BMW to test, develop and deploy variable feature sets across our premium brands, markets and platforms results in delivering the optimal value to our customers!”

For more information on the upcoming conference, visit: https://trajectoryconf.com.

Source: LaunchDarkly

Toyota Material Handling Announces $100M Expansion to Boost Electric Forklift Production in North America