Toilets are flush with potential at this refreshed factory south of Atlanta

Bathroom fixtures are usually asked to just do one thing — toilets flush, faucets flow, and tubs hold water. But they need to do so reliably without fail.

The same principle applies to their production, an effort the world’s largest plumbing manufacturer is bolstering at its factory just south of Atlanta.

Toto USA, the American division of the Japan-based bathroom fixture giant, announced Friday it finished a $224 million expansion at its factory near Morrow in Clayton County. The decades-old plant has undergone a technological refresh, incorporating new automation and artificial intelligence-powered precision.

“It was state-of-the-art at the time we built it,” said Bill Strang, president of corporate strategy, e-commerce and retail at Toto. “But now (after this expansion), it is remarkable to see the level of automation and technology that’s been incorporated into the manufacturing process that we have today.”

Robots spray compressed air to remove dust from toilets at Toto's Morrow plant. (Courtesy of Toto USA)

Opened in 1991, Toto’s factory at 1155 Southern Road is one of three the company currently operates in North America. The Clayton County factory’s expansion allows for a 50% increase in production, a capacity of 300,000 units per year.

Toilets, which Toto calls Washlets, are the company’s central product, and advanced versions are becoming more in vogue in America, Strang said. He said “the great toilet paper panic of 2020” — a period early in the COVID-19 pandemic when roiled supply chains led to TP and other product shortages — helped spur interest in bidets and luxury toilet systems.

Automated systems at Toto’s Morrow plant apply glaze inside the toilet trapway, creating smooth and stain-resistant surfaces. (Courtesy of Toto USA)

He added that the Japanese company’s investment in the U.S. looks predictive in hindsight, given President Donald Trump’s tariff campaign that aims to remake global trade.

“We made the decision to invest in this factory a couple of years ago,” Strang said. “It almost looks like we were savants and anticipating what was going to come along the horizon with tariffs and other challenges.”

Toto broke ground on the expansion in June 2023, completed construction last November, and expects to resume production this fall. The expansion adds 161,500 square feet to the factory, which employs 420 workers.

Slurry, a mixture of water and finely ground clay, is prepared at Toto's factory in Morrow. (Courtesy of Toto USA)

The Development Authority of Clayton County, in June 2024, approved an incentive package for Toto to expand the plant, even though construction had already begun. The company said it would retain existing employees at a higher average salary but would not add new jobs.

“It was an opportunity for us to see what that tax abatement would be,” Strang said.

The authority declined to disclose the estimated property tax savings that Toto is expected to receive, but estimates calculated by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found the company could receive about $9.2 million in savings over 10 years. Even with the tax savings, the amount of money Clayton will receive in property taxes will go up during the life of the incentive agreement.

The factory’s employees will also learn new skills working with cutting-edge technology, Strang said. New equipment installed during the expansion includes tank bonding robots, automated guided vehicles, high-pressure casting equipment and heat-resistant QR codes on products.

An Automated Guided Vehicle, or AGV, transports three toilets at a time between molding, drying, glazing and firing stations at Toto's factory in Morrow. (Courtesy of Toto USA)