Toto USA today opened a $224 million manufacturing facility in Morrow, Georgia, reshoring production of high-end, one-piece toilets from the Toto Group's plants in Asia. Toto USA is the Japanese manufacturer's Americas division based in Morrow.
The company, one of the largest plumbing manufacturers in the world that does more than $5.34 billion in annual sales, says it made the move to increase U.S.-based luxury toilet production capacity by 150% to meet rising demand.
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The expansion will raise Toto's production capacity in the Americas to some one million units annually across its Morrow, Lakewood, and Mexico plants. The new building in Morrow will be able to make 300,000 toilets per year.
As Toto faces extended lead times, even from its own plants, it hopes more regional U.S. production will ensure more timely delivery and unclog its North American supply chain.
The company took the plunge on the project in June 2023 on the site of its original Morrow plant. Construction wrapped in November 2024, and production will begin this fall.
The expansion adds about 161,500 square feet of advanced manufacturing space, bringing the three-story facility to more than 363,393 square feet. It will also help sustain 420 local jobs.
The new facility relies heavily on advanced manufacturing technologies, including:
- A tank bonding robot, a first for any Toto Group plant, that positions and bonds tanks to bowls for one-piece toilets.
- Thirty-four advanced robots that streamline everything from molding to finishing.
- Six self-driving AGVs that can carry three toilets each between molding, drying, glazing, and firing over approximately 44 yards.
- High-pressure casting equipment that can make larger, more complex designs.
- Heat-resistant QR codes that enable real-time tracking, quality control, and big-data analysis to optimize manufacturing processes.
- Two convection-heated kilns with advanced insulation and digital temperature control. The kilns, scheduled to be installed in 2027, will improve energy efficiency and cut CO₂ emissions by 23% compared to current kilns.
Toto began operations in the Americas in 1989 in California. In 1991, the company launched U.S.-based manufacturing in Lakewood, Georgia, and in 1996 opened its first major manufacturing facility in Morrow. For fiscal year 2024, Toto USA recorded sales of $464 million.
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