Toyota Material Handling USA (TMHU) announced this week that it will relocate its North American headquarters from Irvine, Calif., to Columbus, Ind., where it will be housed adjacent to the Toyota Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (TIEM) lift truck assembly plant.

The company said it would close the Irvine office, where it has been located since 2002.

TMHU says the relocation will begin this fall and be completed over a multiyear period. TMHU has 72 employees in Irvine and 53 at the Columbus office. In its announcement, TMHU said it had offered relocation to the majority of the Irvine employees.

The company said the move aligns with the goals of its parent company, Toyota Industries Corp., which has conducted similar relocations in Takahama, Japan, and Mjölby, Sweden.

TMHU is a major supplier of lift trucks to the North American market. Most of those are manufactured in the TIEM plant in Columbus, which opened in 1990.