tucked away in 1119 Milan Street, It is located just west of the historic city center KTM North America Inc. Home to the motorcycle giant’s single distribution center for all of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
The company, an international cycling organization based in Austria, moved to Amherst in the early 2000s with the goal of creating new jobs in the area. Since then, the company, despite its ups and downs, has continued to make its home in the small town. Now in 2023, the center hopes to expand again, bringing with it over 100 new jobs.
“KTM first expanded on the premises in 2007, but shortly after that we fell into a financial crisis,” says Paul Nixon, the company’s COO. “We had to do some downsizing and relocation of corporate offices, but after some time we started to grow again.”
Nixon, who has been with the company for 21 years, says KTM saw its production at the center double in 2018, which prompted the company to begin looking at adding another expansion to the existing building.
“We’ve basically gone from a $45 million revenue operation from 2007 to 2017, to now over $90 million in the last four years, and in order to continue to deliver those high numbers, we’re going to need more people and more space,” Dixon says.
The expansion, which is to include pushing the building to the west and north, was proposed to the Amherst City Council on April 3, with the hope that if passed, construction could begin immediately.
The addition to the building required new storage racking space to hold additional parts so that the company would not have to rely on off-site centers to hold its products.
“This expansion should bring the number of jobs up to 100 new jobs, which is really good for the local area to be able to add these jobs,” Nixon says. “It will also result in less input traffic to the region, because fewer trucks will be coming in with new parts for us to use while producing these motorcycles.”
If approved, Nixon says the company is prepared to get to work immediately and finish the project before the end of the calendar year. The expansions will not cut off the city’s corridors or residential areas.
“We hope this project will bring exciting new opportunities to the Amherst area, as well as help our company continue to expand,” Nixon says.
The final ordinance for expansion will begin before City Council on April 10, and if passed, construction is set to begin in the area shortly after.