Carrier Corp. will expand plant in Collierville
The expansion will allow the plant to build more energy-efficient residential air conditioning and heat pump units, which the federal government has mandated for 2006, the company said.
Plant general manager Rick Sanfrey called the project “substantial” but released few details about the scope.
The last major expansion in 2002 involved an investment of $30 million and added 500 jobs, pushing total employment to about 2,100.
Plans outlined Thursday for Collierville planning officials show an expansion in manufacturing space from 523,000 to 797,500 square feet.
The number of daily truck trips in and out of the plant is expected to grow from about 165 to up to 275.
Sanfrey said the new air conditioning units will be about twice the size of current units.
The figures presented by 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. Construction is expected to be completed by 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.”
The announcement comes as Carrier, a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., has been closing factories worldwide, including Tennessee.
Last month, the Farmington, Conn.-based company said it would close its Warren County plant by the end of 2005, eliminating 1,300 jobs. In 2002, Carrier shut a Lewisburg plant and eliminated 2,000 jobs.
Carrier’s Collierville factory is the largest residential air conditioning plant in the world, according to the company.
“It (the expansion) is a vote of confidence in Rick and his team here,” Hill said. “It is going to be a win for both us and Collierville.”
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United Technologies Corp.: http://www.utc.com