The manufacturing site of the new company was set for Futajima (now in the City of Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture) and construction of the Futajima Plant (to be renamed Wakamatsu Plant) began in 1919. Futajima Plant was modeled after Libbey Owens plants. As the post-WWI economic boom pushed up the cost of building materials and labor, construction was able to proceed with funding from the bank. In August that year, 225 workers were at the plant where Sugita also acted as the head manager. To assist in the installation and operation of the Colburn process machines imported from the U.S., a group of Libbey Owens engineers headed by Otto C. Miller traveled to Japan.