Canon Invests In Virginia

Canon announced on Thursday that it is investing more than $600 million in the creation of a new facility in Virginia that will bring along with it more than 1,000 jobs.

The facility, which will be constructed in the Hampton Roads, Va., area, is part of Canon U.S.A and Canon Virginia's Vision for the Future program. Canon will build a 700,000 square foot laser printer cartridge manufacturing plant and will expand its repair and refurbishing facility for digital consumer products.

Canon also plans to create a lab to research the development of robotic and automated manufacturing technologies in Newport News, Va., and to expand its toner cartridge recycling and reclaiming program at its Industrial Resource Technologies facility in Gloucester County, Va.

"Today's announcement symbolizes a significant investment in manufacturing in the U.S.," said Tsuneji Uchida, president and CEO of Canon Inc., in a statement "The combination of producing, selling, collecting and recycling cartridges locally, and eliminating the need to transport products around the world, will allow us to have a positive environmental impact by helping to reduce CO2 emissions worldwide.

Canon Virginia will work with groups like the Virginia Community College System, local schools and the Virginia Department of Business Assistance to create a Technical Training Academy to train the group's work force in advanced manufacturing and product repair.

Last year, Canon announced that it was building a new headquarters facility for itself in New York.