The first Volvo excavator to be built at the Volvo Construction Equipment manufacturing facility in Asheville, North Carolina, rolled off the production line in November. The rollout event in Asheville was attended by several hundred city, county, state and Congressional public officials, private industry executives, company management, dealers, customers and personnel, industry and local and regional members of the media, and members of the Swedish embassy from Washington, D.C. It also marked the initial revealing of the results of a $25 million to $56 million investment dedicated over the next several years to the expansion of the company’s fabrication and assembly capabilities to meet growing requirements in the excavator market in North America.

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) announced in June of 2006 that it would make a significant investment in the Asheville plant expansion and more than double its number of employees to meet the growth of its construction equipment market. The expansion of the plant and its manufacturing capabilities was made possible in part by grants and incentives from the state of North Carolina (Job Development Investment Grant), the N.C. Department of Commerce, N.C. Community College System, N.C. Department of Transportation, Buncombe County, the City of Asheville, the Economic Development Coalition of Asheville-Buncombe, and Advantage West.

The Asheville plant, a modern 400,000 square foot facility, is now building four of Volvo’s excavator models including the Volvo EC160C, Volvo EC210C, Volvo EC330C, and the Volvo EC360C. A Volvo EC160C hydraulic excavator was the first machine off the production line in November. The company will continue to produce five models of Volvo’s wheel loader product line and produce excavator and wheel loader cabs. Initial deliveries of the excavators will be made to markets in the United States and Canada.

In October, the manufacturing facility in Asheville was awarded the North Carolina Shingo Silver Prize for Manufacturing Excellence. Given to organizations that have positive improvements trends in their business functions, Volvo Construction Equipment received the award for its continuous improvement in total cost reduction and quality practices.

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