WEST POINT — Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Mississippi held the grand opening of its new $300 million commercial truck tire factory in West Point on Monday.
The ceremony was held just more than two years after breaking ground on the West Point site in 2013. Since then, the company has hired more than 260 employees. The company has plans to bring that number to 500 by the end of 2016, according to Human Resources manager Melissa Orman.
Over 66 percent of the current positions have been filled by Golden Triangle residents, according to Orman. At full capacity, the plant will produce up to 1 million tires a year.
Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Yokohama Rubber Company President Hikomitsu Noji and Congressman Trent Kelly were among the 300-plus attendees at the opening ceremony, which included speeches, a tree planting ceremony and a reception.
In speeches, Noji and Bryant spoke of the importance of companies such as Yokohama in Mississippi and crediting the state’s workforce with making the plant possible.
“Your incredible support and workforce has made this possible,” Noji said. “You gave us everything we need and now a mere two years after we (broke ground) on this beautiful 500 acres of land, we are ready to make tires that will keep American trucks rolling down the road and the economy moving.”
“We look forward to many many years of success together,” he added.
Yokohama Tire Company began looking for a location in 2012, according to Bryant. Over 3,000 counties in 48 states were considered before the West Point location was chosen.
“Someone did a lot of traveling to find their way here to West Point, Mississippi in Clay County,” Bryant said. “Imagine that if you will all across the United States a perfect location for this partnership was here all along. I could have saved them a lot of time and effort.”
Bryant predicted that in the first year Yokohama would manufacture 1 million tires and would produce more every year after that.
The plant is 1 million square feet and sits on a 570-acre piece of property. It makes the tires from scratch in different departments from mixing raw materials, including three different types of rubber, to assembling the components into a tire and curing and finishing the tire.
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