Warren County lands new industry – Thermo Flex plans to bring 30 to 40 jobs to community
After a year of work and preparation, including negotiating a plant site, Warren County will be welcoming a new industry into the community.
Thermo Flex, a subsidiary of PolyFlex Products, will be opening a plant in one of the buildings located at the Carrier complex in Morrison with plans to eventually employ 30 to 40 workers.
The deal is promising news for a community which has been yearning for manufacturing jobs. The company hopes to begin production by May or June.
County Executive John Pelham says he is pleased to see one of the many Industrial Development Board projects come to fruition.
?We?re very excited for the people here in Warren County,? said Pelham. ?It?s an announcement we would like to have had even sooner, but it?s a long process getting all the details worked out. But Jeff McCormick, our director of economic development, has done that. He?s put a package together and it?s been a successful project.?
McCormick says the area where the company will be located is commonly referred to as the D-1 warehouse building, a part of the Carrier complex but separate from the main building.
?We?ve been working on this for about a year, since last June,? said McCormick, who indicated the company officially signed a lease last week.
The company engineers and manufactures plastic, urethane and rubber materials used in manufacturing.
The products are designed to help clients reduce or eliminate costs associated with packaging, shipping, processing and manufacturing, as well as offering ergonomic handling of the customer?s products.
In order to establish a presence in the southeast, Thermo Flex had been contemplating a move to Tennessee for some time, according to company official Mark Kirchmer, eventually narrowing down its search to Warren County.
?The management team of Thermo Flex decided to locate our facility in Warren County after considering several locations in Tennessee,? said Kirchmer. ?There were many strong possibilities for us to choose from in other counties, but the decision really came down to how we felt about the business support structure in Warren County.?
Kirchmer said the assistance and cooperation he received from the Industrial Development Board and local utilities, as well as county government, played a big part in the company?s decision.
?Jeff McCormick played an active role in assisting us with finding the right facility,? Kirchmer said. ?And Terry Mullican of Caney Fork Electric has provided the assistance we need in readying the plant for production. We appreciate the support we are receiving and believe that support will be key to our success in the future.?
Pelham says he believes recruiting new industry like Thermo Flex, as well as supporting existing industry, is an important aspect of growing the local economy. It?s also part of the recovery process from the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs over the past eight years.
?This is another piece of the puzzle,? Pelham said. ?It shows we have a really good team assembled right now, and that things are starting to go in the other direction. This is good news, but I know people are still struggling and we still have a lot of work to do, and we?re going to continue to work hard, but this is a start. We?re excited about Thermo Flex being a part of our community, and we?re proud to have them.?