Toyo Tire launched its fourth expansion of operations in Bartow County, with plans to add 450 more jobs within the next two years and another 200 jobs by 2017. That’s about 200 more jobs than the company previously announced it would add in August.
Jim Hawk, the president of Toyo’s North American division, said Friday the tire manufacturer plans to invest $371 million in the expansion. It was not immediately clear what state incentives were involved in the decision.
The expansion will add 700,000 square feet to the manufacturing plant and increase the warehousing footprint by 30 percent for the facility, which produces light truck and passenger car tires. The plant has more than doubled in size since it opened in 2004, and the staff has grown from 81 to more than 1,000.
Gov. Nathan Deal attended Friday’s groundbreaking ceremony at the noisy manufacturing plant in Cartersville as dozens of the plant’s workers looked on. Over the din of machinery, Deal credited the 2012 repeal of a sales tax on energy used in manufacturing with sealing the deal.
“Toyo Tire could have gone anywhere in the world to make this kind of addition, but they chose to stay right here in Bartow County,” Deal said. “And I believe with the help of the General Assembly, we have made the prospects of expansion even better.”
About the Author
