Automotive manufacturing corporation DENSO announced Friday it's adding 1,000 jobs and will invest $1 billion into its Blount County facility.
The company hopes to make the Blount County facility a primary manufacturing center in North America for electrification and safety systems.
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DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee Inc. is the largest DENSO operation in North America. It currently employs 3,500 hundred people at its Maryville facilities. It consists of four manufacturing plants on 194 acres and is Blount County’s largest employer, according to the company.
DENSO said they have already started the expansion and hopes to have it finished in 2018.
“This is a huge win for the state of Tennessee and Maryville. DENSO has been a part of Tennessee for over 30 years and continues to be a great part of our state. I appreciate DENSO for continually investing in Tennessee and helping us become one step closer to our goal of making Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs,” Gov. Bill Haslam said.
The company has two locations in the state in Maryville and Athens.
In total, DENSO employs roughly 4,500 people in Tennessee.
"This is an investment in the future of DENSO, and also the future of transportation. We are seeing dramatic shifts in the role of transportation in society, and this investment will help position us to meet those changing demands,” said Kenichiro Ito, chairman of DENSO's North America Board of Directors and chief executive officer of DENSO International America.
The Maryville plant manufactures various car parts for clients like Honda, Toyota, GM and Ford.
The DENSO Corporation is based in Japan and operates in 36 countries.