Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, which has called Cypress home for nearly a half-century, is moving its headquarters to Kennesaw, Georgia, where it has been moving divisions for years.
The corporate exit from California comes as Yamaha undertakes “structural reforms” aimed at improving profitability in response to cost increases from the Trump administration’s tariffs and “changes in the market environment.”
The company’s departure will happen at the end of 2026 and continue until late 2028, according to Yamaha.
Company spokesman Bob Starr said the move would affect about 250 workers at the Cypress facility.
“In terms of efficiency, to have us all together in Georgia, all the functions of the business, it makes a lot of sense,” Starr said.
Yamaha is the second big company to exit Cypress in recent years.
In 2019, Mitsubishi Motors North America left its Cypress headquarters after 31 years, relocating to Franklin, Tennessee. The automaker, which employed roughly 200 people at the time of its departure, cited lower operating costs in Tennessee.
Iwata-based parent Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. also said in its statement that it will sell the 25-acre office campus on Katella Avenue, which serves as an administrative hub with corporate functions and financial services for its motorsports operations, including products like all-terrain vehicles, golf carts, motorcycles and motorboats. Yamaha does not perform any manufacturing in Cypress.
Commercial brokerage firm Avison Young has been tapped to market the Yamaha facilities, which include industrial, flex-warehouse and office buildings in a combined 278,964 square feet, occupying an entire city block bound by Katella Avenue, Holder Street and Yamaha Way.
Avison Young says the Yamaha property is one of the largest industrial redevelopment opportunities available in Southern California.
Besides tariffs, Yamaha also said the move is the result of changes in the company’s business focus within the U.S. market. The move to Georgia follows the relocation of its marine business there in 1999 and motorsports business in 2019.
“The city of Cypress regrets Yamaha’s decision to relocate its headquarters to Georgia,” said Alicia Velasco, director of planning and community development for Cypress. “As one of the first companies to locate in the Cypress Business Park in 1980, Yamaha has been an important part of our business community for more than 40 years. We thank Yamaha for its long-standing partnership with the City and look forward to working with its management to transition to new ownership.”
Yamaha Motor Corp. on Katella Ave. in Cypress, CA, is moving its operations and headquarters to Kennesaw, Georgia. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
In the past decade, there have been several corporate departures from California — both headquarters and operations — for a variety of reasons, though many have cited lower labor costs and taxes.
Other notable departures included the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer’s sale of its longtime San Diego campus to a life science-focused commercial real estate company a year ago; Hewlett Packard’s decision in 2020 to move its global headquarters to Spring Texas, from San Jose; and Toyota’s move in 2014 when it shifted its U.S. headquarters to Plano, Texas, from Torrance.
In 2021, electric vehicle maker Tesla moved its headquarters to a facility in Austin, though three years ago it opened up a global engineering headquarters in the former home of Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto. Billionaire founder Elon Musk moved his residence from California to Texas, where there is no state personal income tax. The company’s automaking plants still operate in Northern California.
The Buena Park-based Yamaha Corp. of America, which makes musical instruments and sound gear, is unaffected by the relocation.