Yamaha Leaving California for Kennesaw, Georgia

It’s not just people leaving the Golden State. More tech companies are also packing their bags and moving their headquarters to other states. >> HP Enterprise, software giant Oracle, and Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, three big names in tech, are all packing for Texas. Public Storage is leaving Southern California for Frisco. The company has already expanded its corporate presence in North Texas ahead of this big announcement. >> Oracle, Tesla, and now realtor.com. >> Fantastic to do with Texas. The states that have been winning more recently are the states that don’t have any state income tax or corporate taxes.

>> After more than a century, the international oil giant Chevron will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Houston, Texas. >> California’s top income tax rate is the highest in the nation at 13.3%. >> This afternoon, as expected, the mayor of Atlanta and governor of Georgia announced the railroad giant’s Norfolk headquarters would pull up stakes and move to the Peach State. >> HP and Oracle are moving their headquarters, while Tesla sets up a new facility in the Lone Star State. >> That we will see California’s not being a leader in innovation anymore, and California basically beyond the point of repair.

Yamaha. Yamaha. I mean, >> [laughter] >> how many companies are going to leave California? What’s going to be left? I mean, as it is sits right now, I’m doing about one podcast a week of big, well-known, you know, nationwide companies, world, Yamaha, worldwide companies leaving California and moving to Texas, Florida, Georgia, Carolinas, Arizona, anywhere that has a lower tax basis than California. Yamaha, let’s talk about it. Here we go. Yamaha Motor Company Limited, Tokyo, 72 72, decided to relocate its US group company, Yamaha Motor Corporation, USA, YMUS sticker. Currently located in Cypress, California to Kennesaw, Georgia.

This relocation will be happening by function over the period from end of 2026 till the end of 2028. Now, this isn’t the first time Yamaha has left California. They’ve already sent just multiple divisions. Ah, guys, we can’t can’t leave too much here cuz it’s expensive to operate a business in California, but send that division ahead and then we’ll slowly bring in the next division. You guys go and and then then we’ll do an absolute end route at the end and up, we’re all gone. Got to go. See you. See you, Gavin. Connection with this square location, company has also decided to proceed with the sale of all fixed assets owned by YMUS in Cypress, California, including land, offices, and warehouse.

This initiative is positioned as one of the company’s key measures aimed at improving asset efficiency and enhancing profitability in the United States. Now, when I saw this, it kind of made me think of what I’m doing, which is I’m going from a really expensive area, Bellevue, Washington, to Oklahoma City. Very affordable area. Median home price in Bellevue is probably I don’t know, is it 1.2, 1.3? And I’ll be north of that. And median home price in Oklahoma City is you know, depending on which numbers you metrics you you use, 225, maybe 260, somewhere in there, under 300 for sure. So, when you’ve got improving asset efficiency, my assets here are worth way more in real terms of dollars here.

Why wouldn’t I make that move? Well, I mean, you do have things like quality of life, but you know, in a move from Seattle, Washington to Oklahoma, it’s about straight affordability. It’s about straight affordability. And I would argue anybody who says, “Ah, Washington state’s just got a way better quality of life.” You know what? I would say, “If you are mentally challenged, that could absolutely be true.” But what you have to do is be able to put your head entirely in the sand. You thought I was going to go somewhere else there, didn’t you? And you wouldn’t be wrong. You got to be able to put your head in the sand and just completely ignore the fact that Washington’s going to have a millionaire’s tax.

Washington’s going to have a state income tax. Washington’s going to have a statewide payroll tax. And it’s And the taxes are just going to go on and on and on and on cuz that’s what happens when you have Democrat rule for 40 years and you bring a bunch of Democrat Socialists of America into the play and they get all worked up about affordability, not really realizing that the very policies they’re bringing to the table make things less affordable, make things more expensive. Cuz the more you layer on nonsense after nonsense after nonsense, that’s what makes things so expensive. And that’s why in all of the sanctuary cities that have the most expensive real estate, yeah, they’ve constricted the supply of land and then they’ve just made it incredibly difficult to build.

And they’ve got some of the highest gas prices. You name it. And the whole list just goes on and on and on. It’s all about policy, right? It’s all about policy. So when you’ve got asset efficiency you’re looking at, how can I make make one asset multiply another? And for me, it was the cost of living living delta. I have a 140% change somewhere in there with the cost of housing in Bellevue versus the cost of housing in in Oklahoma City. Now, are there weather things to be concerned about? Yeah. Seattle’s completely mild. You don’t have these raging winds. We don’t have tornadoes. We don’t have some of that stuff.

But, I can handle that. I I can handle wind, bad wind. I can handle um a golf ball-size um hailstorm. All right, okay. What I can’t take is people lying to my face, little leadership, and saying, “It’s this is going to be great, greatest thing ever.” knowing that I’m heading into more retirement years than peak earning production years. I don’t really want to be in an environment that’s just going to get more and more and more expensive and not be able to, you know, not worry about my future. And that is just, you know, a very limited look at that, and there’s so many other things. Leadership here in the state of Washington is terrible.

It is horrific. It is horrifically bad. Every single time you turn around, these libtards are trying to sue Trump for, you know, clipping his toenails. Literally, it’s it’s the most fantastic misuse of public funds, and I don’t want to be involved in that anymore. I’m just like, “No. No.” So, you know, states that people are moving out of, California, New York, Illinois, um and a couple more in the East Coast. States that Maryland and uh what’s the other one? Yeah, Massachusetts. Moving out of in droves, moving to for tax purposes, moving to Florida, Texas, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Carolinas.

Right? Because of low taxes, low taxes. So, when you’ve got asset efficiency because they own this headquarters, they can sell that and leverage that incredibly in Georgia because the cost of living is so much less. And you’ve got more of a pro-business environment. And you’ve got less taxes and enhancing profitability in the United States. And that’s what business is all about, right? Cypress facility has served as the headquarters of YMUS for approximately 50 years. So many of these companies have been there since like the ’70s, ’80s, and they’re just picking up and moving because consistently, day after day after day, there are big companies moving out of California cuz the numbers don’t pencil anymore.

They just don’t. And it’s approximately 50 years since Yamaha Motor Company Limited acquired the land in ’78 and established the office in ’79. However, response to changes in the company’s business focus within the US market, the marine business was relocated to Kennesaw in ’99. So, this has been a This has been a decades in the move in the making move, right? So, 27 years later after the marine business already moved there in ’99 to serve the customer better, and motorsports business was relocated to Kennesaw as well in 2019, another 7 years later, Yamaha corporate headquarters, “Boys, we’re going to meet the rest of the troops.

Going to Kennesaw.” As a result, Cypress facility prior currently primarily houses corporate functions in the financial services business. It’s the last to leave. Total site area is approximately 25.1 acres. That’s a good size site. I mean, that’s a complex, right? 102,000 square meters. Ah, we don’t care about that. We’re not doing We’re not doing metric here. We’re doing acres. 43,500 square 43,000 560 square feet in an acre, right? That’s just real estate 101. You got to know that. If that isn’t just rain burned into your head, what are you even doing, right? A tenth, 4356. Tenth of an acre, there you go.

9,000 square feet, 0.2 acres. As a result, Cypress facility currently primarily houses corporate functions, yada yada. In connection with the sale of these assets, the company plans to utilize a sale and leaseback arrangement for a certain period of time in order to ensure business continuity and to facilitate a smoother relocation to Kennesaw. All they’re saying is, “Hey, we’re going to make this move. We’re going to make this announcement. We’re going to pull everybody from corporate headquarters. However, we’re going to lease it back so we don’t have to do it you know, like over a weekend, right?” When you got that lease that expires and you got that new place, “I need to be out of here in one weekend.” You get a couple of your buddies to help you, and just goes terribly.

And you got all this stuff left on on Sunday night, and you got to go work the next morning. Oh, terrible. Moving is terrible. It’s horrible. I’m in the process of getting rid of most of my stuff cuz I don’t really need it. I don’t need a lot of stuff I don’t have a lot of stuff. Um I got some tools. I got some guns. I got some equipment. But I got like a couch, a dining room table, a bed. I’m I’m going to get rid of all that cuz it’s cheaper to just buy new there cuz it’s more affordable in Oklahoma City than it is to I’m going to wrap and cut my storage unit and I’m going to load it up in the driveway and they’re going to ship it and they’re going to store it.

Yeah, I’m not doing that to a bunch of just nonsense, right? Sell it, give it away, donate it, and then buy some cheap stuff there cuz that’s kind of how I live. I know I just don’t care. I’ve got some stuff for my kitchen. Yeah, I’ve got a couple of my kids’ boxes. One of my kids is dead. Got his, you know, memorable stuff. I got a box of that. I I got to take that with me. My son’s gone. That’s kind of all I physically have left of him. Terrific. Horrific when you’re like, “Oh, there’s that box.” Uh, fantastic. Brendan’s stuff. As in connection with the sale of these assets, the company plans to utilize the sale and leaseback arrangement, okay?

Details such as the sales price, purchaser, and timing of the transaction are currently under review. How many more hits can California take? How many more big big companies can California take? I don’t know. You know what I mean? And at some point in time, you’re like, “This is laughable. This is literally laughable how many big companies are leaving.” Yamaha Motor Company Limited is undertaking structural reforms aimed at improving Here’s the the corporate nonsense. Aimed at improving the profitability of its US operations in response to cost increases resulting from US tariffs and changes in the market environment.

I think Yamaha makes a great product. Have I had a Yamaha? If I had I’ve had a Honda lawn mower. I’ve ridden on lots of Yamaha motorcycles. I had a Kawasaki motorcycle when I was young. An EX 500. It was a rocket. I could have died and I would not be here talking to you, but you know, different stories. Um Yamaha Yamaha I always put in there with hey highly efficient, good mechanics Japanese built and engineered, right? Need you say anymore? No. No, same category. I put in the same quick category as Kawasaki and Honda. Uh with Honda always, you know, they got really good lawnmowers. >> [gasps] >> Honda lawnmowers.

In addition to implementing cross-business cost reduction initiatives company seeks over the medium to long-term to build a profit structure that is not solely dependent on top-line growth. Thereby transform What are we even talking about here? Donuts? I don’t even know. Thereby transforming itself into a more resilient and robust organization capable of adapting to change. You know what’s always so funny to me is that how business people can use so many words. Appraisers are famous for this. Just using a whole bunch of words that could be cut down to like three words. It was black. And instead they go, “Well, it has all color that marginal blues in it.

Dark concentration.” No, it’s black. It’s black. It’s black. Just go with that. Business people and and particularly authors need to justify their pay scale, their pay grade with however many complex words and ways of describing something super simple. They’re going to save some money. Yamaha’s going to save some money. They’re going to save some taxes. They’re going to benefit from having a couple of divisions already there that apparently 27 years ago they decided we need to be in Georgia. Cuz it’s more centrally located. It is not. I mean, kind of, right? You’re like, “Ah, I know where Georgia is.” And that’s not central to Well, anyway, East Coast, West Coast.

Now, when you’re talking California, yeah, Cali- California’s got the biggest economy of any state in the United States, and it’s what, fourth or fifth largest in the world if it was its own country? You can’t avoid California. But then, if you’re doing business in California, you realize how expensive it is, just like here in Washington state. Just super expensive. Every time you turn around, you’re like, “What? How much? My burrito’s going to be 32 bucks before tip?” Uh, I don’t think so. I don’t think we’re going to do that. It’s going to cost me how much to renew my state appraisal license?

Yeah, that one’s that that I’m literally going to spend Some of it’s my fault because I let my appraisal license expire for more than a year because I haven’t really needed it. I’m not appraising anymore. I’m podcasting and managing some of properties. But I don’t need an appraiser or appraisal license to do either one of those. So, don’t even have an appraisal license. But I’m going to get it back because that’s just a license you want to keep. It’s going to cost me 2,500 bucks to renew. Now, if I wouldn’t have screwed around with continuing education and done all that, it would have cost me about 1,200 bucks and then another 600 with continuing ed.

But because I waited and just dinked around, you know. So, I don’t need to do that right now. What could it cost me? 2,500 bucks to renew a license in Washington state. That should be like 50 bucks. But it’s not because Washington state goes, “All right, here’s our wildly bloated s- um budget for the appraisal department. Now, we’ve only got 14 guys that are appraising in Washington state. Therefore, divide the budget by 14 guys, and there it is, 2,500 bucks. You know, 1,200 bucks. Whatever that math works out to. You know, it’s They’re literally trying to push you out of doing business. California’s doing the same thing.

We’ve heard it time and time and time again. And if you’ve got a corporate headquarters, then you can make some money. That looks good for the shareholders. And that’s what you do. One of my other podcasts this morning was PBF refinery, California. They They have two refineries in state of California. They’re basically saying, “Hey, unless you switch stuff up for a state of California, we’re not going to be able to continue to do business here. We’re going to be out. We got to bounce.” And they basically sent a letter to California saying, “You’ll go from seven to five refineries.” Cuz they own two refineries in California.

And uh Martinez and somewhere else. Can’t remember. Whatever. They’re leaving California. They’re going to leave California. Writing’s on the wall. Another major company leaving. And unfortunately, there’s been so many refineries that on top of all this crazy stuff going on in Iran, which is sure to absolutely spike gas prices. I saw gas uh my way into the office this morning at 4.89 a gallon and 4.85 a gallon. And that’s for regular unleaded. That’s not the good stuff. That’s not premium. That stuff is way over five bucks. But it’s been over five bucks for a while cuz we have some of the most expensive gasoline in the in the in the um United States.

We are consistently we go back and forth with California. We go back and forth with Hawaii, where you got to bring everything in on a barge. Now in California, you’re bringing everything in on a barge because you’ve effectively shut down your refineries, and that’s just expensive. That becomes expensive to everybody who needs to fill up a car. And so those who can afford it the least, get taxed the most. And you leadership in California just says, “Hey man, look at how green we are. We’re so green. The new energy deal. We’re such responsible people. We’re doing our part.” Meanwhile, China and India are just just letting her rip.

Just garbage into the infill. Just emissions just going into the sky. They they’ve got factories. They don’t give a rat’s ass. It’s all just going right to the environment, right? And California, yeah, we’re going to put everything in one plastic bin. We’re going to separate it from cardboard. And it all goes into the garbage anyway, right? Listen, 5% of of plastic actually gets recycled in California. It all goes into the landfill. But hey, let’s virtue signal with our big blue containers and our very small gray containers. So, they identify it here in Oklahoma. I don’t know in the other states.

How do they do that? But green is for yard waste, blue is for recycling, and gray is for waste matter that goes into the dump. And that’s where all this stuff go ends up going anyway, right? Let’s not talk about that. We’ll have grave concern over our virtue signaling. So, Yamaha selling its corporate headquarters, making that move, makes absolute sense to me. Why wouldn’t they? What’s taking them so long? I guess is the actual answer. What took you so long, guys? Oh, we needed that corporate synergy to make this move. We wanted to make sure that got everybody together from the old old headquarters and come all the way out to Georgia.

All right, that’s it for me on this one. Thanks so much for for being here. Yet another one bites the dust in California. Couldn’t happen to a nicer state with better weather, cheaper gas prices. Uh no. Make sure you subscribe. Hit that notification bell. I’ll see you in the next episode. Thanks again for being here. Bye for now. >> [music]