Manufacturing Still Humming in Nashville
Published May 19, 2008
Until now, the General Motors plant in Spring Hill has produced only Saturns, but Chevrolets soon will roll off the line.
The Nashville area is among the places in the United States where manufacturing remains an economic engine humming on all cylinders.
For example, at the Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna, 8,100 workers earning an average of $60,000 a year produce five vehicle models. Nissan, which has been building cars in Smyrna since 1982, is Rutherford County’s largest employer.
A high-profile newcomer among Music City manufacturers is computer giant Gateway Inc., which chose Nashville for a configure-to-order facility for desktop computers, laptops and servers.
“A national search was conducted, and it was determined that Nashville best met our company’s needs for superior inbound and outbound logistics, along with ideal proximity to our established supply-chain partners,” says Jim Burdick, Gateway senior vice president for professional and consumer direct. “Nashville is widely recognized as one of the pre-eminent logistics centers in the U.S.”
The company says it expects to employ more than 300 people ultimately and have an annual payroll of about $8 million here. Gateway is the third-largest personal computer company in the U.S. and among the top 10 worldwide.
“The opening of our Nashville facility is a milestone in our mission to grow our business even more,” Burdick says.
Other large manufacturers in the Nashville area include General Motors Corp., which is converting its former Saturn assembly plant in Spring Hill to build a Chevrolet vehicle. In December 2006, GM committed $225 million toward renovating the Maury County factory’s paint shop to accommodate any size vehicle that GM wants to build.
Another major employer is Dell Inc., which produces PCs and laptops at plants in Wilson County and Nashville-Davidson County. A sampling elsewhere finds Bosch USA building ABS brakes in Montgomery County, Electrolux USA producing electric and gas ranges in Robertson County, Whirlpool Corp. manufacturing refrigerators and home-air products in Rutherford County, and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tires LLC making tires in Rutherford County.
New arrivals to the area include Kenwal Steel Corp., which will fabricate steel products in Wilson County beginning in mid-2007, and Sekisui Plastics USA, which began making plastic polymers for the automotive industry in Maury County in 2006.
“We are a Japanese-based company that manufactures polymer plastic for several companies in the auto industry, and we wanted to locate a new manufacturing plant as close to our vendors in the United States as possible,” says Bob Voytko, Sekisui plant manager. “Middle Tennessee and the southeastern U.S. have many, many vendors for the automotive industry, and our location in Maury County is ideal in a number of ways for our manufacturing operation.”
Sekisui makes a foam resin polymer called piocelan that is used in doors, bumpers, floor spacers and other parts for all Toyotas, Mazdas, Mitsubishis, Hondas and Nissan cars and trucks built in the United States.
High-tech enterprises including computer companies are among Seikisui’s other customers, Voytko says.
“It made perfect sense to locate Sekisui’s first U.S. facility in the Nashville manufacturing region, especially since one of our primary business vendors is a company called Sca Packaging, which is located right next door to us in Mount Pleasant,” he says. “Perhaps not a lot of people affiliate Nashville and its surrounding area with manufacturing, but more and more people in industry are realizing that fact.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Stephen Cherry
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