The first major expansion in 30 years at John Deere’s Horicon factory in Wisconsin, North America, has resulted in a new 36,000m² facility for manufacturing the Gator utility vehicles. Scheduled for completion next month (March), the expansion will add around 80 new jobs, bringing the total workforce to 1,100 during the peak season. Previously there were two different factory operations working on the Gator. The expansion brings both the assembly and shipping operations to Horicon. “Now we’ll put each utility vehicle on our assembly line and it will not come off until it is built exactly the way the dealer wants it, ready for shipment worldwide,” said Horicon factory manager Steve Johnson. “It places everything under our control, and we’ll be able to serve our dealers and customers better, improve the overall quality of the vehicles, and make our operations more efficient.”
The Horicon Works dates back to 1911 when Deere bought the factory from Van Brunt Manufacturing, a maker of horse-drawn grain drills and other farm machinery. Original buildings at the site, located in downtown Horicon, were built in 1865. Over the past century, the factory has manufactured a broad range of farm and recreational equipment, including bicycles and snowmobiles – the tagline ‘Nothing runs like a Deere’ originated with the snowmobile line in the early 1970s. In 1963, Horicon built the first 110 lawn and garden tractor, signalling the company’s first move into the turf market worldwide, and eventually settled into the current mix of products. Today, in addition to the Gator, Horicon makes the X-Series lawn tractors, and a wide range of attachments such as snow blowers, rotary mower decks and blades.
