Nokian to invest $174M in Dayton plant expansion

DAYTON, Tenn. — Nokian Tyres P.L.C. has announced plans to expand capacity at its four-year-old North American factory in Dayton and build a warehouse nearby to house the products.

The expansion plans were announced Wednesday morning during a ceremony held at the Dayton facility, attended by Tennessee state, local and company officials.

The Nokia, Finland-based company said the expansion will create 75 more jobs as it targets doubling its North American capacity.

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A 350,000 sq.-ft. warehouse will be connected to the facility, Nokian said, with plans to bring it online by mid-2024. Company officials said the warehouse will have a capacity of 600,000 tires and will join nine other company warehouses throughout the U.S. and Canada, serving "the growing volume of customers in the Sun Belt."

Nokian Tyres set the total investment in the capacity expansion and warehouse at approximately $174 million, in line with the tire maker's original investment plan. Nokian expects the plant to to reach full capacity by 2024, producing as many as four million all-season and all-weather tires annually for the North American market.

"As demand for our tires grows in the United States and Canada, our expanded Dayton factory will supply customers with a rising number of safe, sustainable all-season and all-weather products," Nokian Tyres Vice President of Sales Tommi Heinonen said.

"We are happy to see the factory provide more jobs for North American workers and more tires for North American drivers."

The move comes less than three months after Nokian Tyres announced it had agreed to sell its Russian operations to Russian energy and chemicals company P.J.S.C. Tatneft, effectively completing the Finnish tire maker's previously announced exit from Russia. The move was prompted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The purchase price of the "debt free and cash free" sale is expected to be around $400 million Euros, or roughly $399 million in U.S. funds. The plant in Vsevolzhsk is rated at close to 16 million tires per year.

Nokian Tyres opened the Dayton plant in 2019 and began producing tires there for commercial use in January 2020. Today, the company said it employs approximately 350 workers there, a number expected to grow to 475 by year-end 2023.

"We strive to be an employer of choice in Southeast Tennessee, and that has been our focus since day one of our operations," Dayton factory Operations Director David Korda said. "As we grow, we're excited about providing fulfilling opportunities for professional growth that will also help our factory and company grow."

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee lauded the company, saying the new jobs "will greatly benefit Tennesseans in Rhea County and across the region for years to come, and I thank Nokian Tyres for placing its confidence in Tennessee."

Nokian Tyres said its 830,000-sq.-ft. factory set production records with existing equipment in 2022. and continues to install more infrastructure inside the factory. The company expects to produce light truck tires for the first time ever at the Dayton factory in 2023.

This announcement comes on the heels of Nokian's recent news that it plans to build a greenfield passenger tire factory in Romania as part of its plan to replace capacity lost due to its decision to exit Russia.

The new factory, valued at close to $650 million, will be built in Oradea in northwestern Romania, near the Hungarian border, allowing Nokian to bolster its market presence, particularly in central Europe. It expexted to start commercial production in 2025.

The company said its application portal is open for the new jobs in the U.S., and it will begin hiring this spring. Starting pay ranges from $17 to $21 per hour. Those interested may apply at NokianTires.com/DaytonFactory.

Nokian said the production building in Dayton is the only one in the world with LEED v4 Silver certification. Its LEED v4 gold-certified administration building is fully powered by energy generated from onsite solar panels.