Georgia’s recruitment of automaker Kia continues to pay dividends as two suppliers to the company are planning new facilities in the state that could bring hundreds of jobs, a Kia executive said Friday.
And this week, Gov. Nathan Deal met with the chairman of Kia’s parent company, Hyundai Motor Group, to pitch an expansion of the factory in West Point, a South Korean newspaper reported.
Randy Jackson, vice president of human resources and administration for Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, said no expansions are currently planned for the main factory. But, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Friday, two Kia suppliers are looking to build facilities in the West Point area, with an announcement from one expected soon.
“They are both very critical suppliers to us and would be very dedicated to us,” Jackson said.
He declined to name the suppliers. But earlier this month, the LaGrange Daily News reported that Hyundai Dymos America is considering a $35 million plant near the Kia factory that could employ 300 people. A deal is not final. The paper said the plant would produce seats for a new vehicle model.
The Kia division opened its Georgia plant in West Point in 2009. The plant builds Sorrento crossover SUVs, Optima sedans and Hyundai Santa Fe crossovers. Kia said its main plant and suppliers employ more than 11,000 people in Georgia and Alabama.
Officials in West Point and Troup County issued $1.6 billion in bonds for the company late last year, which Jackson said would be used to retool the assembly line and for other infrastructure projects within the existing factory.
Separately, South Korean media reported Deal met with Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo in Seoul on Wednesday.
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper quoted an unnamed Hyundai official as saying the company is “seeing some lobbying to expand production facilities from the southern U.S.”
The automaker did not disclose what was discussed, and the governor’s office and the state Department of Economic Development declined to comment.
Hyundai operates a plant in Montgomery, Ala., where it builds Santa Fe SUVs and Sonata sedans.
Hyundai has reportedly encountered labor issues at home with its unionized workforce, and the automaker has informed Korean workers it intends to relocate production abroad in response to labor strife.
The Georgia and Alabama plants are non-union.
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