Diamond Electric plant
a success story



Picture: Gov. Joe Manchin and first lady Gayle Manchin renewed acquaintances with Diamond Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Shigeji Ikenaga and his family during the company’s celebration Monday at Eleanor. From left are Kento Ikenaga, the middle son of Tatsu Ikenaga; Tatsu, who is president of Diamond Electric in the United States; Gayle and Joe Manchin; Takuya Ikenaga, Tatsu’s youngest son; Hiromi Ikenaga, Tatsu’s wife; and Shigeji Ikenaga, the family patriarch.


The below article by George Hohmann of the Charleston Daily Mail highlights the success of Diamond Electric and their West Virginia automotive coil production facility. It also demonstrates the success auto parts manufacturers can have in West Virginia. With companies like Diamond Electric, and Toyota's Transmission Manufacturing Facility in Buffalo, WV, finding high success levels in West Virginia our economy is ripe for additional auto parts manufacturing facilities. What better place to be located? Charleston logistically, provides a capital city, with three major US Interstates intersecting at its center. Charleston provides part suppliers with a logistics center to serve the automotive industry in Michigan, the mid-west, and the growing assembly plants in the South.

George Hohmann
Daily Mail business editor



Tuesday August 01, 2006
ELEANOR -- Diamond Electric Manufacturing Corp.'s plant here is a success story, having grown in 10 years from 8 employees to nearly 200 and expanding three times, from 30,000 square feet to 112,000 square feet, said Tatsu Ikenaga, president of Diamond Electric in the United States.

The plant has had many accomplishments in the past decade, including quality awards, International Standards Organization certifications and increased sales and new business, Ikenaga said.

Several hundred state and local leaders and Eleanor residents gathered at the company's plant in the Eleanor Industrial Park Monday to celebrate the plant's 10th anniversary in West Virginia and its third expansion.

The Eleanor plant has become the larger of Diamond Electric's two United States plants. It now has the capacity to produce 13 million ignition coils a year. When the plant reaches that production level it will have about 20 percent of the entire North American automotive coil production business, Ikenaga said.

The plant began making ignition coils for Chrysler and Toyota in 1997 and for Ford in 2005, Ikenaga said. Diamond Electric hopes to make some parts for General Motors' 2008 models, he said.

Ikenaga said Diamond Electric faces many challenges, including complying with environmental rules, striving to constantly improve quality and responding to pressure from customers to reduce costs.

Ikenaga's father, Shigeji Ikenaga, is the company's chairman and chief executive officer. Eleanor Mayor Fred Halstead presented Shigeji with the key to the town and a proclamation declaring Monday "Shigeji Ikenaga Day" in Eleanor.

Many businesses and organizations throughout the community, from the Dairy Queen to the Foodland to the First Baptist Church, displayed signs on Monday honoring the elder Ikenaga.

In his speech, Shigeji Ikenaga said, "I am delighted to have such good managers and team members." He said that when he told his wife he was being honored, "My wife said, ‘You didn't contribute anything to West Virginia. It was your sons!'

"My wife is a very outspoken woman," he said. "But it is true!"

Halstead and others disagreed. They said Shigeji Ikenaga was the driving force behind Diamond Electric's decision to locate in Eleanor.

David Bagnall, Diamond Electric's director of community affairs, said the company decided to build a plant at Eleanor even before Toyota announced it would build an engine plant 6 miles down the road at Buffalo.

Many top executives from Diamond Electric's operations around the world were at the ceremony, including Shigeji Ikenaga's eldest son, Shigehiko Ikenaga, who was president of Diamond Electric in the United States when the Eleanor plant was built.

In his remarks, Gov. Joe Manchin recalled the West Virginia trade mission to Japan last summer. In Osaka, where Diamond Electric is headquartered, the company hosted a dinner on an upper floor of a hotel with a spectacular view of the Osaka Castle, first built in 1583. During the toasts, Shigeji Ikenaga sang a few lines of "Country Roads" -- in English.

Diamond Electric is active in community affairs and a supporter of education. The company distributes dictionaries to all third graders in Putnam County each year.

The company continued its support of education on Monday by presenting a $10,000 check to kick off a building fund for a new Eleanor library and presenting a $10,000 check to help the George Washington Middle School re-stock its library. The school was destroyed by fire six years ago but has been rebuilt.

Bagnall said the company now has plants in Japan, the United States, Hungary and China. "India will probably be our next location," he said.

Contact writer George Hohmann at 348-4836.