Whirlpool Corporation is breaking ground Wednesday on an expanded KitchenAid factory in Greenville, 40 miles northwest of Dayton, with plans to add hundreds of jobs in the next few years.
The Michigan-based company has been expanding its manufacturing operations in parts of the U.S. since about 2010, and now plans to spend $40 million over five years to nearly double the size of the Greenville facility, where it makes stand mixers and a few other appliances.
In 2012 Whirlpool brought manufacturing of its hand mixers back from China to Greenville, and just a few months ago, the plant started making a new line of products—kitchen soda-makers, in partnership with Israel-based Sodastream. Sodastream has been the target of boycotts from opponents of Israel’s actions in Palestine, but plant manager Ken Hossler says that political pressure hasn’t affected the Greenville plant.
The factory expects to add 300 jobs, for a total of 1400 by the year 2018. Construction will run through mid- to late-2015.
