The Toyo Georgia plant Phase IV groundbreaking ceremony took place Dec 6, 2013. (Left-to-right): James Jarrett, chairman, Bartow/Cartersville Joint Development Authority; Steve Taylor, Bartow County Commissioner; Honorable Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia; Jim Hawk and Tatsuya Doi, Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing Inc.; Matt Santini, mayor of Cartersville; Chris Carr, commissioner, Georgia Dept of Economic Development; and Gretchen Corbin, commissioner, Georgia Department of Community Affairs.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co. Ltd. has broken ground on a project to expand production capacity at its Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing, Inc. (TNA) plant in White, Ga. The $371 million project will add 700,000 square feet to the 2-million-square-foot tire manufacturing plant.
The warehouse portion of the facility will also be expanded by 323,000 square feet to accommodate the increasing demand for Toyo Tires and Nitto brand premium light truck and passenger car tires, according to the company. The expansion will create 650 jobs over the next four years.
The TNA manufacturing facility first broke ground in 2004 and features a proprietary automated production system called A.T.O.M. (Advanced Tire Operation Module).
The first tire rolled off the line in early 2006 when the company employed a staff of 81 people. It has since undergone three expansion projects, more than doubling the size of the facility and now employing a staff of more than a thousand people.
In September 2013, TNA achieved certification to the latest ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Systems. On Nov. 27, 2013, the manufacturing facility achieved a total production of 20 million tires.
"We are proud to manufacture tires for North America, on North American soil," says Jim Hawk, president, TNA. "This plant, and the people who work in it, play an important role in supporting consumers and our dealers as demand for our products continues to grow. This fourth expansion will help us answer that demand."
Toyo Tire North America Manufacturing, Inc. (TNA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Toyo Tire Holdings of Americas Inc.
