HKS (company)

HKS Co. Ltd.

Type
Traded as	JASDAQ:
Industry	Automotive, motorsport
Founded	1973
Founder	Hiroyuki Hasegawa Goichi Kitagawa
Headquarters	Fujinomiya, Shizuoka, Japan
Key people	Hiroyuki Hasegawa Goichi Kitagawa
Products	Automotive accessories and tuning
Revenue	8,514,000,000 yen (2005)
Number of employees	276 (February 2009)
Subsidiaries	UK, Thailand
Website	www.hks-power.co.jp

HKS Co., Ltd. (株式会社エッチ・ケー・エス, Kabushiki-gaisha Ecchi Kē Esu^?) is a publicly traded company headquartered in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan specializing in the production and sales of aftermarket and accessory automotive parts and components.

HKS was formed in 1973 by Hiroyuki Hasegawa, a former engineer for Yamaha Motor Company, and his partner Goichi Kitagawa, while the start up capital was supplied by Sigma Automotive (hence the name HKS). The company began operations by tuning gasoline-powered engines in a dairy-farming shed at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. Their goal was to design and build high performance engines and components that major OE (original equipment) manufacturers could not or would not produce. In July 1974, Hasegawa engineered and built the first commercialized turbocharger kit for passenger automobiles; since then developing turbocharger upgrades and bolt-on turbocharger kits that subsequently became the core business of HKS. Hasegawa also created the first commercially available electronic turbo timer and boost controller.

HKS is a publicly traded company with an international sales and distribution network spanning Asia, Europe, Australia and the Americas to support its customer base. The main manufacturing and R&D facility is at the foot of Mount Fuji. Subsidiary companies have been established in California (HKS USA), Cambridgeshire, England (HKS Europe), and Bangkok, Thailand (HKS Thailand). HKS USA, established in 1982, shut down operations in 2011 electing instead to use wholesale distributors to handle their supply chain in the USA. Motovicity Distribution was selected as the North American warehouse for HKS where a full inventory of products is maintained for HKS’ North American customers.