Arctic Cat to build snowmobile engines in Minnesota

Arctic Cat has announced that it will begin to transition its snowmobile engine manufacturing from Suzuki Motor Corporation to its own facility in St. Cloud, Minn. after the 2014 model year.

Suzuki currently supplies all engines for Arctic Cat’s snowmobiles. Suzuki will continue to supply engine parts to service existing engines after the 2014 model year.

“Suzuki has been an outstanding engine supplier for more than 25 years and remains a significant shareholder in Arctic Cat,” says Christopher A. Twomey, Arctic Cat’s chairman and CEO. “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 will also enable us to better utilize our current engine manufacturing capacity, resulting in potentially better costs.

“Our St. Cloud engine facility has been a great addition for the company since we began manufacturing out ATV engines there in 2007.”

The 56,000-square-foot plant is located on 15 acres and currently employs 41 people. At this time, the company plans to use existing plant capacity and personnel during the transition. Arctic Cat expects snowmobile engine production to begin in St. Cloud in fiscal 2015.