Japanese company setting up shop in Huntley

Japan’s oldest and largest mounted ball bearing producer will be moving its U.S. operations from Wauconda to Huntley.

FYH Bearing Units USA has plans to build a 41,122-square-foot distribution center at I-90 and Route 47 within the Huntley Corporate Park. The new site, nearly twice the size of the Wauconda location, will serve as the company’s main U.S. distribution center. FYH is expected to move to its Huntley digs in October.

FYH’s Wauconda location now houses 16 employees.

But because company officials anticipate that figure to double within the next few years, they have bought enough land to cover a 37,000-square-foot expansion.

In the corporate park, FYH will join Rohrer Corporation, which manufactures packaging for commercial products, Ingelese Box Company, which makes pizza boxes, and LDI Industries, which makes fuel tanks, filters and tube fittings.

“We’ve very excited,” Business Development Coordinator Margo Griffin said. “We know that this is a great time for the village of Huntley, especially with the widening of Route 47. The full interchange is moving along very well, so we really feel like this is the next business park that’s really going to take off along the I-90 corridor.”

Company leaders hope to present their plans to Huntley in March and to break ground on the $3.5 million project this April, Operations Manager Jay Frasor said.

For FYH, it’s all about the location.

Huntley’s proximity to the tollway and future interchange means an easier commute for its employees and quicker access to O’Hare International Airport for its customers and products.

Moreover, Huntley welcomed FYH with open arms, Frasor said.

“We just felt more like we were appreciated,” he said, adding that the company eyed other towns along the tollway. “For the extra five minute drive, the price of the building was extremely different.”

You’ll find mounted ball bearings underneath industrial-sized conveyor belts and on roller coasters.

FYH is based in Osaka, about six hours south of Tokyo. It accounts for 45 percent of the ball bearings market in Japan and 3 percent of it in the United States.