Continental Tire the Americas LLC plans to invest $129 million in its Mount Vernon, Ill., tire facility. The expansion will create more than 100 new full-time jobs over the next three years.
The company says the driving forces behind this investment are threefold:
1. an increased demand for Continental and General brand tires;
2. the need for better complexity management in the plant; and
3. emerging technologies in tire production.
“Continental Tire the Americas continues to grow our business in the U.S. and across the Americas,” says CEO Jochen Etzel. “This investment will support our efforts to provide an outstanding line-up of passenger, light truck and commercial vehicle tires for our customers.”
Of the $129 million, $95 million is earmarked for expansion of the commercial vehicle tire production area. The investment includes adding a new mixer and introducing equipment for emerging technologies such as wide-base truck tire production.
When the expansion is completed in mid-2015, the Mount Vernon plant will have the capacity to produce more than 3 million truck tires annuallly.
“This investment will help us continue to produce some of the most technologically advanced commercial vehicle tires on the market, and also addresses our growth in the region,” says Paul Williams, executive vice president of truck tires.
“Our research and development engineers for the Americas, working at our Truck Tire Technology Center in Mount Vernon, have developed tires and technologies for a complete lifecycle solution that begins with excellence in new tire production. In turn, our customers have responded with increased demand for our tires.”
The remaining $34 million of the investment will be used to expand the mixing building and warehouse. Continental estimates this investment will be completed during 2014.
This is the second expansion of the Mount Vernon plant announced in the last two years (see "Continental to expand production at Illinois plant," May 12, 2011).
