Oshkosh coming to Jefferson City

Truck-maker Oshkosh Corporation will place a factory in Jefferson City, creating more than 300 jobs by 2021, state officials announced.

Oshkosh will take over the John Deere plant at 1400 Flat Gap Road, renovating the nearly 500,000-square-foot building and opening in 2019, according to a news release. The factory will house welding and fabrication operations.

“With products and facilities around the world, we are excited to grow our operational footprint,” Oshkosh President and CEO Wilson Jones said in the announcement. “Oshkosh Corporation is positioned for success in all segments and this new manufacturing facility will allow us to continue to respond to the demand for increased manufacturing capabilities.”

Wisconsin-based Oshkosh employs about 15,000 worldwide, with factories in seven states and Australia, Canada, China, France, Mexico, Romania and the United Kingdom, according to the company’s website. Founded in 2017, Oshkosh makes military, commercial and emergency vehicles under the names Oshkosh, JLG, Pierce, McNeilus, Jerr-Dan, Frontline, CON-E-CO, London and IMT.

“We are thrilled at the prospect of additional jobs and the overall economic impact that Oshkosh’s presence will mean,” Jefferson City Mayor Mark Potts said in the announcement. “We also believe that Oshkosh will quickly become a real partner in helping to realize the huge potential of Jefferson City and the surrounding area.”

The news release did not detail any public incentives for the project, but in it TVA Senior Vice President of Economic Development John Bradley said TVA, the Economic Development Alliance of Jefferson County, Jefferson City, Jefferson County, Innovation Valley, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee College of Applied Technology, and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development were all “pleased to partner” in the project.

Source: Knoxville News Sentinel, by Jim Gaines

The East Tennessee Economic Development Agency markets and recruits business for the 15 counties in the greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region of East Tennessee. Visit www.eteda.org

 

Published July 13, 2018