Minneapolis-based Arctic Cat Inc. will be transitioning its snowmobile engine manufacturing from Suzuki Motor Corp. to its own plant in St. Cloud, Minn., beginning with the 2014 model year. The Japanese manufacturer currently supplies all engines for Arctic Cat’s snowmobiles, and it will continue to supply engine parts to service existing engines after the 2014 model year.
“Suzuki has been an outstanding engine supply partner for more than 25 years and remains a significant shareholder in Arctic Cat,” Arctic Cat chairman and CEO Christopher A. Twomey stated. “However, we are changing our engine strategy in order to gain more control over our products, and enhance our ability to meet regulatory and performance requirements. This also will enable us to better utilize our current engine manufacturing capacity, resulting in potentially better costs.”
Arctic Cat designs and manufactures all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles under the Arctic Cat brand name, along with related parts and branded and accessories.
The 56,000-ft2 plant in St. Cloud has 41 workers at present, producing engines for Arctic Cat all-terrain vehicles since 2007. The company stated it plans to use existing plant capacity and personnel during the transition. Snowmobile engine production will begin there in FY 2015.