Local officials talk about Hankook Tire coming to Clarksville

Lee Erwin reporting
lerwin@clarksvillenow.com

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan, Montgomery County Mayor Carolyn Bowers, Industrial Development Board (IDB) Executive Director Mike Evans and IDB Chairman Don Jenkins met with the media Tuesday to talk more about the exciting news of Hankook Tire Company locating a plant in the local Corporate Business Park.

When asked about workers pay for the proposed 1,800 employees of the new plant Evans said the pay rate was not set in concrete but the rate that was put in he state agreement was $18.25 an hour. Evans said there will be a number of white collar salaried workers as well as manufacturing hourly wage earners.

Local officials with the Economic Development Council (EDC) discussed all of the effort and the behind the scenes work that went into hankook choosing Clarksville-Montgomery County as the site for the company’s first U.S. Manufacturing facility.

Evans said Hankook began looking at sites across Tennessee about 18 months ago as a location for their new plant. It was earlier this year, in February and March that members of the local Economic Development Council were invited to make a presentation to a firm representing the company in Atlanta, Georgia.

After that meeting the site selection was narrowed to four locations in Tennessee and Evans said in April local officials were notified that Clarksville-Montgomery County had been picked as the location for the new manufacturing facility.

Mayor McMillan attended a dinner at Governor Bill Haslam’s residence Monday with representatives of the company and said that the one thing she kept hearing over and over from Hankook personnel was that they were very impressed with the capabilities of the local workforce in the community.

McMillan said the workforce was the main thing that put Clarksville-Montgomery County ahead of other sites. “The workforce here was what said to them this is the place we want to be because you can provide a ready workforce for us that’s dedicated, that’s committed and is going to make this plant happen,” said McMillan.

The question on many people’s minds is when will the company begin hiring workers? Some hiring of employees is expected through next year and the IDB is currently working to set up some temporary office space for the company. The major push for workers being hired is not expected to take place until late in 2014 with tire production set to begin in 2016.

Evans added that the potential of the Hankook project is greater than what has been talked about so far. “As long as we continue to embrace them and to help them through theses processes we have the potential of a company that will come in here and do like many of our other companies and double in size,” Evans said.

There is also hope that possibly sometime in the future Hankook will consider moving its headquarters from New Jersey to the site in Clarksville-Montgomery County. At this point relocating the company’s headquarters is only a hope by local officials but Evans said they will work to try and convince the company to make such a move.

Mayor Bowers commented on how the company had strong feelings about Clarksville-Montgomery County. “They really liked our community and the fact we seemed really excited about the prospect of their company coming to our community. I think they were very focused to make sure that they were going to be integrated into our community,” Bowers said.

IDB Chairman Don Jenkins talked about that there are many people who want Clarksville to grow and the growth has been astronomical and not just because of Fort Campbell or the industry. He said it’s just overall a great place to live, a great place to raise a family and Clarksville-Montgomery County has a lot to offer.

“Clarksville is a melting pot. We have an incredible force of community citizens here and everybody feels at home, it’s a very welcoming place. I think the Koreans we talked to were impressed with the Korean churches and restaurants, but more than that just the overall culture of Clarksville,” said Jenkins.

Evans praised the cooperation among all of the parties involved in bringing the Hankook Tire Company to Clarksville-Montgomery County. Evans said the EDC and IDB worked diligently with the two mayors, local city and county departments, state officials, TVA and others to make sure they were part of the team for industrial recruitment.