Mayekawa is a Japanese family-owned company that manufactures compressors that serve the food, medical and oil and gas industries. It has moved its U.S. headquarters to Brookshire and last week completed construction of its first compressor at that plant.

The company had plants in California and in Lebanon, Tennessee. The California plant has been closed. The Tennessee plant will soon be closed, with everything moving to Texas.

The refrigeration market continues to grow as the world’s population grows. Brian Kelly, vice president for refrigeration, said more food will be needed to feed this growing population. To that end, more refrigeration facilities will be needed.

“It never slows down, and that’s the beauty of food and beverage,” Kelly said.

Aaron Vaughn, production manager, said the compressors are mostly custom-built, depending on a customer’s situation. However, he said, Mayekawa is careful to keep notes and specifications to replicate a compressor for when a similar need arises.

Vaughn is one of the employees about to relocate to Texas from Tennessee. He said he was in the Katy-Brookshire area last week looking for a house. Presently, he said, he lives in Nashville and commutes to Lebanon, which is about a 40-minute commute away.

“I like it,” Vaughn said of Texas. “It’s definitely different. The traffic situation is a lot different, but it will be nice to select a location a lot closer to where I work.”

To meet the growing need, the company looks to hire more people. Presently, the Brookshire plant has about 70 employees. The plan is to bring in more sales engineers, human resources manager Yvette Florendo said. Eventually, the plant will have just under 100 employees.

“We’ve had issues finding people, but that’s just the job market right now,” Florendo said, adding that with most of the office jobs, employees are in the office three to four days a week.

While Vaughn is preparing to move to Texas, Florendo said she moved from California (and a different company) earlier this year.

“We love it; the culture here is great,” Florendo said. “There’s so much to do in the area. We love that our boys are around it.”

Company culture is important with any business, and Florendo said the Japanese have a respectful culture.

“What we’re trying to build here, it really gives us time to reflect on what wasn’t working in Tennessee and we can get things moving for our employees here,” Florendo said, adding that the goal is to create a strong, happy and respectful culture among the employees, with no separation between the plant and office staffs.

Brian Kelly, vice president for refrigeration, said the company employs about 4,500 people worldwide. He said Mayekawa is excited with the new facility because it’s state of the art.

“Our goal is to be number one in our industry within the next five years,” Kelly said.