Posted on 03/12/2004 5:26:53 AM PST by GailA
Carrier will expand plant in Collierville Efficient heating, air units will require major addition
By Jimmie Covington Contact March 12, 2004
Carrier Corp. officials Thursday night outlined a major expansion of the firm's Collierville plant to build more energy-efficient residential air-conditioning and heat pump units that the federal government has mandated for 2006.
Plant general manager Rick Sanfrey said the project is "substantial," but it is too early for estimates on the cost or the number of jobs to be created.
"It's a big deal," said town Administrator James Lewellen.
The plant employs about 2,100 people. The last major expansion in 2002 involved an investment of about $30 million and added about 500 jobs.
The plant is on the west side of Byhalia Road between the Norfolk Southern Railway and Winchester.
The plans outlined Thursday night for the town Planning Commission and Design Review Commission show an expansion in manufacturing space from 523,000 to 797,500 square feet.
About 97,000 square feet of new space would be on the west side of the plant and 178,000 would be on the south side.
The number of daily truck trips in and out of the plant is expected to grow from about 165 to 250-275.
Sanfrey said the new air-conditioning units will be about twice the size of current units.
He and other officials proposed that the tractor-trailer traffic enter and leave primarily through an entrance on Winchester.
The figures presented by the Carrier officials show the daily units produced per shift increasing from 5,125 to 5,805. Building the new units will require a changeover of the manufacturing lines, and new lines will be added.
Company officials hope to gain approval in time to break ground in early May. The target for completion of construction is April 2005.
Ken Hill of Indianapolis, Carrier's manufacturing engineering manager for residential products, said, "I expect that this improvement will carry us well past 2010 or longer. It will carry us through the whole life of this product."
Hill, who is project leader, noted that manufacturing plants are closing and moving in many places.
"It (the Collierville expansion) is a vote of confidence in Rick and his team here. It is going to be a win for both us and Collierville."
Interesting, and related thread . . . complete with the requisite whining that "labor costs are not important, unless they are."
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