President Bush Visits U.S.-based Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery

9 Dec, 2005

—Also Gives Speech to the American Public—

President George W. Bush visited Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corporation (President Alan. L. Seeba), US joint venture company between Hitachi Construction Machinery and John Deere, on December 5, 2005.

The visit was recommended by Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and arranged as the appreciation of that company’s contribution to employment in the area amid achieving solid business results as well as its aggressive efforts in support of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

President Bush arrived at 12:45 p.m. with Treasury Secretary John Snow, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Guiterrez as well as U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), and showed great interest in the factory over the succeeding 20 minutes. On a podium before 700 employees and others, President Bush gave a 45-minute speech that covered a broad spectrum of topics such as the U.S. economy, taxes program and health care. Within his speech, he touched on that Deere-Hitachi is a good example as a successful joint venture between the two parent companies, and expressed his gratitude to representatives of both John Deere and Deere-Hitachi, including General Manager, America Business Division Hitoshi Manabe, who greeted him on behalf of Hitachi Construction Machinery. (photo)

The speech ended with the President shaking hands with each employee, and after signing some autographs, he visited with a Deere-Hitachi employee who had lost a son in Iraq. He then left the factory at around 2:15 p.m.

Building off of this visit by the President of the United States, Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery and the Hitachi Construction Machinery Group will work to achieve greater penetration in the U.S. market.

[ Deere-Hitachi Company Overview ]

Company Name: Deere-Hitachi Construction Machinery Corporation

Address: Kernersville, North Carolina, U.S.A.

Capital: US$58,800 thousand (John Deere 50%; Hitachi Construction Machinery 50%)

Business Lines: Manufacture of construction machinery

Net Sales: US$767,893 thousand (Year ended December 2004)

Establishment: June 1988

Number of Employees: 1,000