Koh Young Opens New North American Facility

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Scutchfield: Yes. We want them to be able to deliver that message effectively, which we can do better with our new facility; these are the kind of things that we’re extremely excited about, which was harder to do previously.

Shaughnessy: Juan Arango [managing director at Koh Young America] was saying that 70% of the business is on the East Coast, so when the facility was in Arizona, you’d lose a day with travel.

Scutchfield: That’s what makes this location perfect for many reasons.

Shaughnessy: And it’s close to the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

Scutchfield: Exactly. We have a very accessible airport, as well as a lot of industry peers here, so when customers come into town to see one supplier, they can see multiple. It also gives us collaborative and synergetic opportunities with those peers. Also, the Duluth area here has the third-largest Korean-speaking population in the country and outstanding technical institutions like the Georgia Institute of Technology for internships and access to young talent.

Shaughnessy: What was in this location before?

Scutchfield: I’m not sure of the specifics. There were some walls and the general space you see today, but overall, it was empty. We just had to close our eyes and envision what we could do with the space. As we walked through the different areas, we saw conference rooms and office spaces, and a great space for the demo center and training rooms, and that’s exactly what happened. Everything came together very well, and the finishing is top-notch. It’s a world-class facility, and it’s only going to get better. We’re going to include more features and technologies as we go forward to make sure we continue to be the industry-leading facility.

Shaughnessy: Do other Koh Young facilities have facilities like this too, including training centers?

Scutchfield: Most Koh Young facilities have the same elements. Part of the opportunity here is to be able to collaborate not only with partners outside of Koh Young but also internally with our branch offices around the globe on customer-specific needs, and how we do what we do as a global company. Some of our sales managers and other employees visit other branch offices, including in Europe and Southeast Asia, to get ideas for how we wanted to align things here, and that was beneficial. We all pull from the same end of the rope.

Shaughnessy: It definitely seems like a home run for you. I’m glad you’re here because I’m local.

Scutchfield: I was down here last week with my wife, doing a little house hunting. We’re that hoping by late spring or early summer of 2020, we’ll be your neighbor.

Shaughnessy: Thanks for taking the time to talk about this new facility.

Scutchfield: It’s my pleasure, Andy. Stop in and say hello anytime you’re in the neighborhood.

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