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WILLIAMSTOWN - Nearly a year after Hino Motors Manufacturing USA rolled the first truck off the assembly line, more than 300 community leaders, business officials and dignitaries attended the grand opening ceremonies Monday.

The invitation-only event was held at the facility at 1 Hino Way and included Hino officials, Gov. Joe Manchin and Motoatsu Sakurai, ambassador and consul general of Japan.

"The meaning of this grand opening is commitment," Manchin said.

When Hino Motors announced in June 2007 that it would open the Williamstown facility, it said 80 employees would be hired and it would invest $8 million into the community and state.

"It's been one year and here we stand with 105 employees and $18 million invested by Hino Motors," Manchin said. "This is a partnership that is good for all involved."

Yasuo Tanigawa, president of Hino Motors Manufacturing USA, said he is surprised by the plant's growth.

"I am proud of our team effort," Tanigawa said.

Tanigawa announced the facility will soon expand to a second shift to make 20 trucks a day.

"Hino has created a market place in one year, and I'm as excited as anyone else that they chose to do it here," Manchin said.

Tanigawa said the increase in production was not as much about the end of a contract with the Toyota Auto Body Consortium in Long Beach, Calif., this summer, as it is about a growth in demand.

Sumio Fukaya, Hino Motor Sales president, said while the entire market is down 45 percent, Hino sales are actually starting to grow in the United States.

"Our trucks are high-quality and that is helping build the market," Tanigawa said. "Our reputation is growing and that means our business here is growing."

During the formal ceremony, Hino Motors officials announced several contributions to the community through education.

Tanigawa presented a diesel truck engine to Washington State Community College in Marietta while Khoji Kondo, president of Hino Motors, HMMUSA parents company, announced a Hino college scholarship fund.

The fund will be awarded annually to four high school seniors throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley for up to $1,000 a year for up to four academic years. The program will be administered by the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation.

The ceremony ended with Manchin and Hino Motors executives and dignitaries in the traditional ceremony of breaking the top of a keg of sake. The ritual, known as Kagami Biraki, symbolizes "an opening of harmony and good fortune."

With the celebration of the plant's success as well as its impending growth, Fukaya said Hino is blessed by its partners.

"The future is very, very bright for this company and this community," Fukaya said.