Company closed its 58-year-old Pendleton center last month

A global company known for its expertise in servicing engines recently closed its Pendleton operation and moved it to the Tri-Cities.

Cummins invested $250,000 to open a service center at 1708 E. James St. in east Pasco. It expects to employ up to 15 people.

The Columbus, Indiana-based company closed its Pendleton shop June 9 after 58 years. The Oregon facility employed five people.

The 16,000-square-foot Cummins Sales and Service Tri-Cities facility is more than twice the size of the original service location in Pendleton.

The new shop features eight service bays and will provide certified technicians for in-shop and field service for engine work, including on-highway truck, transit and recreational vehicles, construction and agriculture, as well as generator applications for recreational vehicles, residential and commercial buildings.

The company also does a lot of warranty work. Cummins warranties vary by market and application, but the typical HD automotive warranty is two years/250,000 miles.

The Tri-City location also will offer an extensive inventory of new and refurbished Cummins parts.

The Pendleton service center didn’t have nearly as much space to house inventory, said Sandra Ihly, general manager for the Pasco center. It relied on about four sea containers for storage.

Ihly said the Pasco warehouse also is more centrally located to better serve Cummins customers. “Pendleton was on the I-84 corridor but the area never took off and boomed,” she said.

The Pasco facility will serve the entire region, from Pendleton and Hermiston to the Tri-Cities north to Othello, said Susan Hong, Cummins marketing manager for the Pacific region. The company also has service centers in Spokane and Yakima.

Two more service centers are opening in western Washington this summer as well, in Sumner and Everett, Hong said.

“We’re trying to position ourselves better to be in a more convenient locations for stops. That was case for the Tri-Cities as well,” Hong said.

Cummins is making investments in new and renovated branch locations throughout North America. The upgraded facilities feature larger service bays to help service a variety of equipment, improved lighting and better environmental efficiency.

All of the new Cummins facilities are equipped to service natural gas vehicles.

Cummins signed a seven-year lease for the Pasco warehouse with three extension options of three years each with Maiers Enterprises LLC.

Cummins employs about 55,000 people worldwide and serves customers in about 190 countries and territories through a network of approximately 600 company-owned and independent distributor locations and about 7,200 dealer locations.

A grand opening for the Pasco service center is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 20 and includes tours of the facility, lunch and a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Guests are asked to RSVP at http://now.cummins.com/TricitiesRSVP.

The Pasco service center is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 509-547-6499 or visit cummins.com for more information.