For many in the Golden Triangle, all that is known of PACCAR is the massive facility that commands the landscape along Highway 82 between Columbus and Starkville.
PACCAR plant manager Scott Blue on Tuesday pulled back the curtain on one of the area’s most successful industries during a visit to the Columbus Rotary Club.
Since arriving in Lowndes County in 2007, PACCAR has enjoyed the sort of sustained success that makes it a rarity.
“PACCAR has not had a single quarter in the red in 76 years,” Blue noted during a slide presentation that detailed the company’s operations. “That’s 76 years of continuous profit. There are few companies that can say that.”
Blue gave an overview on the Lowndes County facility, which machines and assembles engines for its Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks.
“The PACCAR Columbus facility is 420 acres,” Blue said. “The manufacturing facility is 420,000 square feet and our office complex is 70,000 square feet. We not only have plenty of room to do whatever we want, maybe even add a truck line — you never know — but within the manufacturing facility itself. We have the room in the facility to basically double the number of engines were machine and assemble we are doing today.”
Low fuel prices have created a great demand for trucks.
“It’s a good time for the trucking industry, and naturally, we benefit from that,” he said. “We are already in the process of expansion now. So, yes, the prospects are pretty bright.”
Blue said an expansion would create about 20 new jobs at the facility, which is heavily-automated. There are currently 520 employees at the facility, which operates three shifts.
Even at its current production rate, the impact of PACCAR’s production is substantial.
“About 10 percent of the engines you see in all of the trucks in the United States are made here in Columbus,” Blue said. “It’s an exciting time for us.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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