More than 1,000 Kubota employees, along with area and state political and business leaders, braved drenching rain Thursday to celebrate the company’s 25 years of success in Hall County. Kubota Manufacturing of America Co. located in Gainesville Industrial Park North in 1988 to establish the Japanese Kubota Corp.’s North American manufacturing base. In the past quarter century, the local headquarters has grown from about 38 workers to about 1,100.