Agricultural machinery and building materials manufacturer Kubota Co’s fledgling Kubota Computer unit is almost overnight becoming a major computer manufacturer, and pressing requirements from the two US companies in which it holds stakes, Stardent Computer Inc and MIPS Computer Systems Inc have persuaded the company of the need to triple the manufacturing capacity in its plant in the Japanese prefecture of Yamanashi. A new plant is to be built, starting next month on 40,000 square feet of land adjoining the existing plant, and is planned for completion in July next year. Capacity after completion will be around 250 units per month of Stardent’s Titan, and 500 units of MIPS’s M120 systems. A total of 130 people will be employed there by 1991. Kubota Computer holds 22% of Stardent Computer and 20% of MIPS Computer. The plant opened for business in 1988, and produced a total of 530 machines in the first half of 1989. And any slackening of demand in the US for the computers that Kubota manufactures is expected to be compensated for by growing demand from the Japanese market.
