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Tualatin, Oregon – At an annual shareholders’ meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the president of Shindaiwa Kogyo Ltd. (SDK) announced the unanimous approval of Tom Bunch as the newest member of its board of directors. In the company’s 51-year history, Bunch is the first non-Japanese person elected to serve on the board.
SDK President Y. Asamoto presented Bunch, who serves as president of Shindaiwa, Inc. in Tualatin, Ore., to the executive group. One goal of the board is to have a better understanding of the worldwide markets for outdoor power equipment, which Shindaiwa produces.
“Over 70 percent of the Shindaiwa landscaping business is outside of Japan, and it is growing faster then the domestic market,” Bunch noted. “Simply stated, we are in a much better position to respond to the needs of customers and their expectations. As president of the newly formed handheld division, I believe my interactions with the board will improve communications and responsiveness in fully achieving our strategic goals and enhancing our overall competitiveness on a global scale.”
In recent years, Shindaiwa has made a concerted effort to ramp up local assembly of products at its Tualatin, Ore., campus.
“The Shindaiwa products currently assembled outside of Japan have unequivocally improved our lead times for customers and helped in our ongoing cost reduction program without sacrificing product integrity and quality,” Bunch observed. “Starting immediately, we plan to dramatically expand this operation. In addition, we will soon establish a full-service engineering design team to work both independently and in partnership with the talented SDK engineers in Japan. Our goal is to further expand our range of handheld division products in the near future.”