TUPELO – Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. has announced a $9 million expansion at its Tupelo plant. The expansion will add 35 new jobs.
Cooper Tire employs about 1,300 workers in Tupelo, plus an additional 400 contract workers. The Mississippi plant was spared during a 2008 restructuring along with facilities in Findlay, Ohio, where Cooper Tire is based, and Texarkana, Ark.
Wednesday”s announcement is the second expansion for the plant in two years.
“To continue to add jobs and position our self apart from a competitive standpoint, it”s just a great feeling,” Patrick Jodon, the plant manager, said during Wednesday”s announcement.
“It”s a feeling for our plant, our company, the city, the state of Mississippi and obviously our employees – that were so worried about whether or not there would be a future in Tupelo once the capacity study was undertaken. We”re all very excited.”
Jodon said the expansion won”t add any more space to the 2 million-square-foot facility; rather, it will bring in new equipment to help improve the efficiency of the facility.
“It will make us stronger, more flexible and more competitive,” he said. “This will strengthen the plant and strengthen the company as we compete globally.”
Jodon said the equipment will be moved into the plant over the next 12 to 14 months, Jodon said.
In 2009, Cooper Tire announced a $7 million, 32,000-square-foot expansion that added 150 jobs.
In late 2008, things weren”t quite as rosy. The Tupelo plant was one of Cooper Tire”s four North American plants it was considering closing.
State and local incentives and loans worth some $19 million played a large role in keeping the facility open. Instead, Cooper”s plant in New Albany, Ga., closed.
The Tupelo plant has been open since 1984. The plant makes mainly passenger car replacement tires, but also has expanded its truck and SUV assortment.
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