WASHINGTON – Toyota (IW 1000/8) unveiled Monday an overhaul of its far-flung U.S. operations into a single new headquarters in Texas, with California set to lose the most jobs.
The world's top automaker said that by 2017 most of its North American operations will be relocated to a single campus in Plano, a suburb north of Dallas.
Toyota currently has three separate North American headquarters -- one for manufacturing, one for sales and marketing and one for corporate operations.
"This is the most significant change we've made to our North American operations in the past 50 years, and we are excited for what the future holds," said Jim Lentz, chief executive for Toyota's North America region.
After the moves, Toyota will continue to have 2,300 employees in California and 8,200 in Kentucky.
Toyota said its 10 manufacturing plants in the U.S. would not be impacted by the changes. But it said a number of other units would not be affected "at this time" -- including operating units in Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and distribution centers.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
