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GE Appliances spending $60 million to restart water heater production in South Carolina
GE Appliances in Louisville announced Thursday a $60 million investment in its Camdem, S.C. plant, sending refrigeration work to Alabama
GE Appliances spending $60 million to restart water heater production in South Carolina GE Appliances in Louisville announced Thursday a $60 million investment in its Camdem, S.C. plant, sending refrigeration work to Alabama Check out this story on courier-journal.com: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2019/09/13/ge-appliances-spending-60-m-south-carolina-water-heater-production/2304609001/
Grace Schneider, Louisville Courier Journal Published 6:51 a.m. ET Sept. 13, 2019 | Updated 8:13 a.m. ET Sept. 13, 2019
Louisville-based GE Appliances announced Thursday it would spend $60 million to restart production of water heaters at its Camden, South Carolina, factory.
The move comes as the appliance maker is looking to build more products in the U.S. and is pushing to become the nation's leading manufacturer of large home appliances.
For the union that represents 3,300 workers at Appliance Park in Louisville, the news of the investment going to another state, without union labor, was greeted with a mixture of regret and relief.
"We always want to gain products, not lose them," said Dean "Dino" Driskell, president of IUE-CWA Local 83761.
GE Appliance intends to shift refrigeration production now at Camden to GE Appliance's Decatur, Alabama, plant. That should solidify the production of refrigerators at the Louisville factory, Driskell said.
"Of all our products, refrigeration is the one that I worry about most," he said.
Read this: GE Appliances and Jefferson County are $98 million from agreeing on Louisville park value
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But having just two locations, not three if the refrigeration production stayed in Camden, should help keep the jobs in Louisville, Driskell said, noting that that 1,100 local employees work in refrigeration.
There have been concerns for years that the company may move the work to another state to battle increasingly tough competition.
GE officials said the $60 million investment "positions the Camden plant for future growth and will enable the company to retain all current GE Appliances employees. Employees at the plant will be offered opportunities to leverage their production, skilled trades and learn manufacturing expertise to assist in creating the new water heater production line." It's expected to start production in late 2020.
No new jobs are expected in Camden, but 160 positions associated with the new work will be retained.
GE Appliances built hybrid electric water heaters in Louisville for about five years, but suspended production in 2017 because of weak sales. The space in Building 2 where the heaters were assembled has since been turned over to a third-party contractor, Driskell said, so they understood there wasn't space here to re-start the production.
This time, the company will produce conventional electric and gas water heaters, which represent more than 80% of all such water heaters sold. They "are a great growth opportunity for GE Appliances," spokeswoman Julie Wood said.
Earlier: GE Appliances investing $200M in dishwasher assembly, adding 400 jobs
In October 2018, the company revealed two major investments in Appliances Park that totaled more than $200 million and added 400 jobs related to lines of dishwashers and dryers. The last installment of 140 jobs will be added next month, Wood said, when production of the new dryer starts.
It's part of an overall investment of $600 million since early 2018 to upgrade plants for new products and expand the company's distribution network. All told, the company's additional spending will result in more than 1,200 new jobs.
Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; gschneider@courierjournal.com; Twitter: @gesinfk. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/graces
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