January 2015

MTIDA and TVA Economic Development hosted their Annual Christmas Celebration on December 2nd at the Ellington Agricultural Center. Approxi-mately 135 community, State, TVA, and electric dis-tributors attended.

MTIDA and TVA Economic Development Annual Christmas Celebration

Middle Tennessee Industrial

Development Association

Industry Leader

This year’s event also served as retirement recognition for George W. (Bill) Shuff. Bill will be stepping down as the Executive Director on December 31st after serving for over 35 years in that capacity. On behalf of the Board of Directors, MITDA Executive Committee Sec-retary, Wes Kelley acknowledged Bill’s service to the Association and presented him Colonel Littleton luggage and gift certificates from outdoor and hunting\fishing stores.

Bill will continue to work on a part-time basis for the next several months as he transitions into retire-ment. The Board of Director’s also announced that Robert T. (Bob) Bibb will become the Executive Director as of January 1st, 2015. Bob has been with MTIDA for 26 years and has served as the Assis-tant Director for the last 12 years. MTIDA will be hiring an individual to fill the position of Assistant Director in the near future.

Page 2 MTIDA Industry Leader

DICKSON, TN (September) Mohawk Industries celebrated the groundbreaking of its new 1.4 million-square-foot Daltile facility in Dickson.

In March, Mohawk Industries announced the company would invest $180 million to build a new ceramic tile production facility and distribu-tion center in the Dickson County Industrial Park and create 320 jobs over the next four years.

Mohawk Industries is the world’s largest flooring manufacturer and the largest manufacturer of ceramic tile in North America, selling under well-known Daltile, Marazzi, American Olean, Mo-hawk and Ragno brands. The company plans to open the tile manufacturing plant in the fourth quarter of 2015. Source: TN ECD

Mohawk Celebrates Groundbreaking

OLD HICKORY, TN (September) Polymer Group, Inc. celebrated the expansion of its Old Hickory manufacturing facility. The company just completed a $15 million invest-ment into the construction of a new 300,000 sq. ft. ware-house and distribution center.

A global, technology-driven developer, producer and mar-keter of specialty materials, and the world's leading produc-er of nonwovens, PGI’s Old Hickory facility is one of the largest sites in the PGI family not only in physical size but in resin consumption and weekly sales.

The plant sits on 68 acres and employs 433 people while producing materials – including the unique REEMAY and TYPAR brands – that serve more than 2,000 customers globally. Source: TN ECD

Polymer Group Expanding

SPRING HILL, TN (September) Magna International officials announced the com-pany will expand its Maury County manu-facturing operations by investing $16 mil-lion to construct a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at 701 Beechcroft Road in Spring Hill.

Currently located in Columbia, Magna will create 357 new jobs in Maury County over the next two years.

Magna will manufacture complete seat assemblies supplying General Motors’ Spring Hill assembly plant. GM recently announced the company will invest $185 million to make small gas engines at its Spring Hill manufacturing complex. GM also identified the next-generation Cadillac SRX as a future mid-size vehicle to be pro-duced at Spring Hill.

Magna International Expanding in Spring Hill “Spring Hill, Maury County and the state of Tennessee have been extremely support-ive in our plans for the new plant,” Jeff Fuller, general manager of Magna Spring Hill, said. “We are excited to partner with the local government to create jobs and position ourselves for future business.”

The new, 122,500 square foot facility will be Magna’s fifth location in Tennessee and is expected to be fully operational in Janu-ary 2015. Source: TN ECD

Page 3 MTIDA Industry Leader

MOUNT JULIET, TN (October) Under Armour, Inc. officials announced the company will build a new one million square foot distribution and warehousing facility in Beckwith Farms in Mount Juli-et.

Under Armour, a global leader of performance apparel, foot-wear and accessories, will invest more than $100 million and create 1,500 new jobs in Wilson County over the next five years.

The Mount Juliet facility, scheduled to open in early 2016, will be Under Armour’s third distribution facility in the United States, with the original warehouse in the company’s hometown of Baltimore, Mary-

Under Armour Performs in Mt. Juliet

SPRING HILL TN (September) Comprehensive Logistics Co., Inc. officials announced the company will locate a new automotive man-ufacturing support facility in Spring Hill that will house the manufactur-ing and light assembly of automo-tive components for the General Motors plant in Spring Hill.

The Ohio-based third-party logis-tics provider will invest $30 million and plans to create more than 200 new jobs.

Comprehensive Logistics will build a new Class A industrial building

Comprehensive Logistics Comes to Spring Hill

land and the other location in Rialto, California. Under Ar-mour also operates two Under Armour Factory House retail destinations in the state, locat-ed in Nashville and Sevierville.

Under Armour, the originator of performance footwear, ap-parel and equipment, revolu-tionized how athletes across the world dress. Designed to make all athletes better, the brand's innovative products are sold worldwide to athletes at all levels. Under Armour's wholly owned subsidiary, Map-MyFitness, powers one of the world's largest Connected Fitness communities. The Under Armour global head-quarters is in Baltimore, Mary-land. Source: TN ECD

SPRINGFIELD, TN (September) Airtech International officials an-nounced the aerospace manufac-turer will begin new manufacturing operations in Springfield. Airtech International plans to invest $10.1 million and create 100 new jobs in Robertson County over the next three years.

The aerospace industry in Ten-nessee continues to expand, an-chored by the U.S. Air Force Ar-nold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) and dozens of other major employers, like Bell Helicopter, Triumph Aerostruc-tures and Kilgore Flares Compa-ny.

Airtech International will invest in all new state-of-the-art equipment at its Springfield facility, where it will manufacture process materi-

als used in the manufacturing of composite/carbon fiber parts. Pro-duction is anticipated to begin in 2015.

Airtech International currently oper-ates manufacturing facilities in Hun-tingdon Beach, California; Differdan-ge, Luxembourg; and Tianjin, China with converting and distribution in Chadderton, England.

Airtech International is the latest addition to Tennessee’s robust aer-ospace industry, which currently employs 7,023 people statewide. The aerospace industry in Tennes-see has generated $88 million in investment and 695 new jobs since 2011.Source: TN ECD

Airtech Flys Into Springfield

on 13 acres at 715 Beechcroft Road in Spring Hill. Managing more than 4 million square feet of facility operat-ing space in the United States and Canada, the company’s Spring Hill facility is slated to be complete in the second quarter of 2015.

In addition to logistic support, Com-prehensive Logistics will provide value-added services including parts sequencing and assembly of head-liners, tires and wheels, rear sus-pensions, and front verticals.Source: TN ECD

Foutch Industries Adds To Workforce SMITHVILLE (October) Foutch Industries, a locally owned custom coating business based in Smithville, announced plans to add 40 new positions at its Moog Boulevard facility. Once additional staffing is in place, Foutch will employ roughly 170 in DeKalb. Foutch has a 277,000 square foot painting and warehousing facility, a 155,000 square foot multi-coating facility and a full-service metal works and fabrication shop. Source: Upper Cumberland Business Journal

Page 4 MTIDA Industry Leader

Hankook Breaks Ground CLARKSVILLE, TN (October) Hankook Tire officially broke ground on its $800 million, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the Clarksville-Montgomery County Corporate Business Park.

Becoming the largest tenant in the expanded portion of the Corporate Business Park, Hankook Tire’s new facility will exist on 469 acres between Rossview Road and Dunlop

Lane. Construction is currently underway and will result in a 1.5 million square foot ad-vanced manufacturing facility, which will produce high-end performance tires. Slated to officially begin operations in 2016, the plant will secure pro-duction capacity of 12 million tires, mostly for regional sup-plies in the North American market Source: TN ECD

LEWISBURG, TN (November) Ditech Testing will locate a new facility in Lewisburg in the South-ern Carriers Building, 1801 Chil-dress Road. The company spe-cializes in refurbishing all types of cylinders and tanks for the liquid petroleum industry and will invest more than $5.6 million and create 77 new jobs.

With the opening of the new Lewisburg facility, Ditech will service 85 percent of North America with plans to provide cylinder and tank refurbishing and certification throughout the entire continent by 2016.

Ditech will be hiring for the follow-ing positions: Heavy Equipment Operator, Industrial Painter,

Ditech Refurbishing in Lewisburg

Tenneco Celebrates 20th Anniversary COLUMBIA, TN (October) Samuel, Son & Co., Ltd. an-nounced plans to locate a new manufacturing opera-tions in Columbia by con-structing a 105,000 square foot facility in NorthPointe Industrial Park.

The company is the largest family-owned metal processor and distributor in North Amer-ica and will invest $32.6 mil-lion and create 42 new jobs in Maury County.

The Columbia location will specialize in metal pro-cessing, blanking steel and aluminum coils for sup-ply to the automotive stamping industry. The company has already

doubled the size of the facility from its initial discussions with the state and county, adding a state-of-the-art slit-ting line for steel and alumi-num.

Samuel, Son & Co., Ltd. of-fers end-to-end solutions in the distribution, transporta-tion, processing and manu-facturing of metals and indus-trial products. With locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and Australia, the company em-ploys a workforce of 5,300 worldwide. Source: TN ECD

Samuel, Son & Company Puts Stamp on Columbia

SMITHVILLE, TN (October) Tenneco recently celebrated its 20th Anniversary of doing business in Smithville as well as National Manu-facuter’s Day on October 3rd.

Employees en-joyed a plant-wide cookout on all shifts. Also invited to attend were City and County Officials as well as the Industrial Board. Tenneco Plant Manager Jeff Starkey and Plant Controller Anthony Cantrell presented the officials in attendance with a plaque thanking them for their commitment to Tenneco’s future growth.

Tenneco has hired approximately 100 team members in 2014 and will be adding approximately 100 more jobs in 2015. Source: WJLE.com

Welder, Hydro Console Operator, Machine Operator, Quality Con-trol, Truck Driver, Production Supervisor, Administrative Secre-tary, Logistics Coordinator and General Laborer.

Ditech is a designated cylinder recertifier of both U.S. and Cana-dian tanks, as required by the

Jeff Starkey - Plant Manager, Kevin Robinson -City Public Works Director, Jimmy Poss - City Mayor, Tim Stribling - County Mayor, Anthony Cantrell - Plant Controller

U.S. Department of Transporta-tion, Transport Canada and The Canadian Gas Association reg-ulations including hydrotesting and external visual inspection.

Source: TN ECD

Page 5 MTIDA Industry Leader

HealthStream Adding 200 Jobs NASHVILLE, TN (October) HealthStream, a Nashville-based company that provides health care workforce development and patient experience tools, will add approxi-mately 200 jobs over the next sev-eral years at a new patient interview center.

The company is leasing 22,000 square feet of office space at 565 Marriott Drive, near Nashville Inter-national Airport, to create the new center. In the facility, HealthStream professionals will conduct telephone

patient satisfaction interviews on behalf of health care providers, according to a news release.

HealthStream's local customers include Community Health Sys-tems, LifePoint Hospitals, AmSurg Corporation, Capella Healthcare and Ardent Health Services, ac-cording to the release. The addi-tion of new customers plus the "landmark expansion" of several existing ones are driving Health-Stream's growth, according to the release.

A Better World for Pets™ NASHVILLE, TN (November) Steriliz, a Roch-ester, N.Y.-based company that manufactures and sells ultraviolet disinfection tech-nology, plans to open a Nash-ville office that could eventu-ally become its headquarters.

The company, founded in 2009 by CEO Sam Trapani, is working with Nashville-based consulting firm Healthcare Resource Partners to estab-lish a local presence and con-nect Steriliz to the area's hos-pital companies.

Steriliz's system, the R-D Rapid Disinfector, uses ultra-violet technology to disinfect hospital rooms and includes specialized sensors that allow for exact dosage measure-ment and tracking of steriliza-tion bursts.

The company currently has about 20 people working with it via an outsourced model, and about 100 of its systems have been deployed across the United States, Canada and the Middle East.

The Nashville office will house both a sales presence and a "solutions” presence.

The office will launch in the first quarter of 2015 and, over the course of 12 months, cre-ate between 15 and 20 new jobs in the area. Steriliz will initially operate out of Healthcare Resource Part-ners' Franklin office but is hoping to find office space near the area's other health care firms, likely in Maryland Farms or Cool Springs. Source: TN ECD

Potential Headquarters for Steriliz

THOMPSON’S STATION, TN (October) Mars Petcare officially opened the doors of its new, state-of-the-art, Gold-LEED certified $110 million Global Innovation Center in Thompson’s Station.

The new campus, designed to help the company make A Better World for Pets™ through pet food innovations, is the third Mars Pet-care innovation center and first in the United States. It will serve as the global center of excellence for the company’s portfolio, which includes five billion dollar brands: PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, ROY-AL CANIN®, BANFIELD® and IAMS®.

The new center joins forces with similar Mars Petcare Global Inno-vation Centers located in Verden, Germany and Aimargues, France, and will focus on dry cat and dog food in both the natural and main-stream pet food categories. Source: TN ECD

Earlier this year, HealthStream purchased Jericho-based Health Care Compliance Strategies for $15.4 million, the latest in a string of recent acquisitions. Including its Cummins Station headquarters and its small Brent-wood office, the company em-ploys about 400 in the Nashville area.

The Nashville patient interview center will be the company's

second. Outside of Tennessee, HealthStream also has offices in Pensacola, Fla.; Jericho, N.Y.; and Laurel, Md., where the company operates its existing patient interview center. Source: Bizjournals.com

Steriliz CEO Sam Trapani and COO Steve Baiocchi with the firm's UV-light sterilizer, the R-D Rapid Dis-infector.

Page 6 MTIDA Industry Leader

NASHVILLE, TN (November) Bridgestone Americas, Inc. officials announced the company’s plans to relocate its head-quarters to downtown Nashville in a newly constructed facility slated for completion in mid-to-late 2017. The headquarters will house employees currently based in Nashville, as well as those from three out-of-state business units that are being relocated to the city.

Bridgestone Americas’ investment in the planned 514,000 square foot, 30-story headquarters is valued at $232.6 million and will create 607 new jobs in Davidson County.

Groundbreaking is projected for early 2015 with planned oc-cupancy in the third quarter of 2017. The new headquarters, located at 4th Ave. S. and Demonbreun St., is expected to be home base for more than 1,700 employees.

Bridgestone has outgrown its current leased headquarters facility on Marriott Drive near Nashville International Airport. With its lease expiring in late 2017, the company launched an extensive search for a new headquarters location to support future growth. The new headquarters will be home to Bridge-stone Americas corporate staff and supporting functions, as well as Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC; Bridge-stone Retail Operations, LLC; Firestone Building Products Company, LLC; and Firestone Industrial Products Company, LLC. Source: TN ECD

GOODLETTSVILLE, TN (November) Ground was bro-ken at the City of Goodlettsville’s front door for a new Loden Vi-sion Centers corporate head-quarters and medical facility that will bring new services to the area.

City of Goodlettsville officials, Dr. James C. Loden, Dr. Ter-rence Doherty and others turned the earth for the first of two buildings Loden Vision Centers has planned for the site at 520 Rivergate Parkway in Goodletts-ville.

When completed Fall of 2015, the two-story, 44,000-square-foot structure will house Loden Enterprises and the Loden Vi-

Loden Vision Sees Goodlettsville For Their Headquarters sion Centers headquarters fea-turing an ophthalmology clinic, a LASIK suite and other services, all with state-of-the-art equip-ment. The building will also fea-ture a two-story lobby and cov-ered drop-off area at the main entrance for patient conven-ience.

This new campus will enable the company to create a corporate home for 115 employees.

Loden Vision currently has five locations in Nashville, Green Hills, Goodlettsville, Gallatin and Paris, Tenn.

“The decision of Dr. Loden and his team to build their new ‘world class’ vision center and adminis-

trative offices in Goodlettsville is phenomenal,” said Goodlettsville City Manager Tim Ellis. Jeff McCormick, Goodlettsville Direc-tor ECD said “this facility is a key enhancement to the Ri-vergate Parkway entrance into Goodlettsville and we are excit-ed about Dr. Loden’s investment and faith in our community.”

Crain Construction is the gen-eral contractor and construction company for the project de-signed by STG Design.

Construction on the second building for the campus will begin about six months after the first building is completed.

Source: City of Goodlettsville

Bridgestone Americas to Relocate to Downtown Nashville

MURFREESBORO, TN (December) M-TEK announced that the company will build a new headquarters facility in Murfrees-boro. Consolidating all headquar-ters functions into the Murfrees-boro facility, the automotive sup-plier will create approximately 100 new jobs in Rutherford County. An additional 100 jobs will be transferred from M-TEK’s Manchester, TN manufacturing location and the remaining jobs will be transferred from the com-pany’s Farmington Hills, MI and Dublin, OH locations. The new facility represents an estimated investment of $13.4 million.

Construction of the 63,800-square-foot, two-level building, will be located on 10 acres on the northwest side of Gateway

Boulevard and Garrison Drive in Murfreesboro with an expected completion of August 2016. The North American headquarter fa-cility will support operations in Mexico, Michigan, Ohio, Missis-sippi and Alabama, as well as Manchester, Smyrna and Chatta-nooga, TN.

M-TEK manufacturers a wide range of automotive parts for several North American assem-bly plants that include door trip panels, rear shelf, trunk trim, dash insulators and plastic injec-tion trim. To meet the growing global market demands, M-TEK also provides export sales to Mexico and Asia. Source: Schrader International website

M-TEK Consolidates to the ‘Boro

The MTIDA Industry Leader is published by the Middle Tennessee

Industrial Development Association

2108 Westwood Avenue, Nashville, TN 37212 Phone: 615.269.5233

Fax: 615.269.5184

Email: mtida@mtida.org Website: www.mtida.org

Executive Director: Robert T. Bibb

Middle Tennessee Industrial

Development Association 2014-2015 Executive Committee

PRESIDENT Darrell Gillespie, General Manager

Dickson Electric System P.O. Box 627

Dickson, TN 37056

VICE PRESIDENT Jimmy Gregory, General Manger

Upper Cumberland EMC P.O. Box 159

South Carthage, TN 37030

SECRETARY/TREASURER R. Wes Kelley, Executive Director Columbia Power & Water Systems

P.O. Box 379 Columbia, TN 38401

MEMBERS

Derek Church, Manager

Mount Pleasant Power System P.O. Box 186,

Mt. Pleasant, TN 38474-0186

Chris Jones, President Middle TN Electric Mem. Corp.

555 New Salem Road Murfreesboro, TN 37129

Bill Rogers, General Manager

Caney Fork Electric Coop. P.O. Box 272

McMinnville, TN 37111

Steven Moore Senior Program Manager

Strategic Initiatives Tennessee Valley Authority

P.O. Box 292409, Nashville, TN 37229-2409

Page 7 MTIDA Industry Leader

SMYRNA, TN (December) Nissan officials joined Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor John Morgan to break ground on a more than 150,000-square-foot education and training facility adjacent to the automaker's ve-hicle assembly plant in Smyrna. This public-private partnership between Nissan and the State of Tennessee will provide train-ing programs aimed at preparing workers for jobs in advanced manufacturing such as engineering, robotics and manufactur-ing maintenance.

The training center, which is scheduled to be completed by late 2016, will operate as an extension of the Tennessee Col-lege of Applied Technology (TCAT) campus at Murfreesboro. Nissan and Murfreesboro TCAT will occupy the facility jointly.

The training center will develop a pipeline of skilled workers for Nissan's Tennessee manufacturing operations and critical opportunities for current and prospective employees to learn valuable skills in advanced manufacturing. Employees will benefit from hands-on training with skilled trades that can be directly applied to work in Nissan's Tennessee automotive plants or with one of Nissan's many suppliers in the region. Source: TN ECD

Nissan and State of Tennessee Partner on Education