Above: Purple Innovation, manufacturer of the renowned "purple" mattress, celebrates the official grand opening this month of its latest manufacturing facility in Georgia (source: PRNewswire).
It may be the dog days of summer, but U.S. manufacturers are full steam ahead, with several new manufacturing facilities announced in August. This month, we saw some big biotech announcements, new strides made in the EV market, and many other new enterprises, making everything from textiles to tools to packaging materials. Let’s explore some of the most exciting new manufacturing plants announced in August.
First up: Big EV Announcement
Last month, we reported that Amazon’s answer to electric vehicles, Rivian, was searching for a second facility in the U.S. This month, electric vehicle startup Canoo announced it has begun hiring at its new Oklahoma facility and will soon zero in on a production date. This comes after the company unveiled plans back in June to establish its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Once complete, Canoo’s facility will sprawl across 400-acres and employ 2,000.
New Textile Facilities in the U.S. South
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, New Jersey-based Precision Technologies announced plans to open a new needlepunch non-wovens facility in Troy. The new facility is the company’s first outside of New Jersey and will help serve heightened mattress industry demand.
In other textile news, Purple Innovation officially opened the new manufacturing plant in Georgia it had announced was in the works last month. The new facility will help the company expand production of its signature mattresses and expects to hire 400 workers once in full production.
"It's an honor to celebrate Purple's growth and the hundreds of jobs they are creating for the hardworking Georgians of Henry County," stated Georgia Governor Brian P. Kemp. "I look forward to seeing the state continue to play a key part in this Georgia Made company's success story."
Biotech Wins Coast to Coast
In biotech news, Just - Evotec Biologics announced it has opened a new late-stage clinical and commercial biologics cGMP manufacturing plant in Redmond, WA. According to the company’s press release the new facility uses cutting edge “J.POD®” technology that uses autonomous clean rooms to process small, but intensified production runs.
Said Dr. Leslie Alexandre, President and CEO of Life Sciences Washington: “Just – Evotec Biologics’ J.POD facility brings new, highly innovative, commercial scale manufacturing capabilities to our industry, with the flexibility to produce small and large quantities of drug substance for biotech companies locally and around the globe."
Meanwhile, in San Diego, oncology company Artiva Biotherapeutics announced it has established a new 52,000 square-foot research and manufacturing facility. The new space will support natural killer therapies and CAR-NK cell production for the development of the company’s cancer cell therapy pipeline. Atriva’s products help leverage the “innate anti-tumor biology and safety features of NK (natural killer) cells” the company said in a press release.
Heading over to the East Coast, MIT spin-out OPT Technologies, announced it has opened the nation’s first-of-its-kind 24/7 continuous additive manufacturing facility in Medford. The new microfabrication plant will scale market access to RAMPTM which is the first continuous 3D printing platform that allows materials to be produced without limited length and with a high degree of precision. OPT Technologies developed the InstaSwab novel nasal swab for COVID-19 and scaled up the RAMP technology in order to design and manufacture the swabs.
Said Founder Jifei Ou: “Our proprietary additive manufacturing system specializes in making microstructures at a massive scale. We’re unique in precision microfabrication that can create rolls of materials and designs with no limitation in length. Our technology stack currently provides material solutions for medical, cosmetic, and consumer product applications.”
Georgia Pacific Doubles Down on Sustainable With New Envelope Facility
Meanwhile, Georgia Pacific announced plans to expand manufacture of sustainable shipping envelopes with the establishment of a new location in Henry County, Georgia. The new facility, which expects to bring 50 jobs to the area, will manufacture multiple sizes of a easily-recycled mailers.
Milwaukee Tool Continues Expansion With New Mississippi Plant
And some exciting news from Milwaukee Tool, which announced plans this week to build another manufacturing plant in the state of Mississippi. The new facility is expected to open in November 2021 in the town of Clinton and represents a $7 million investment. The 357,000 square-foot plant will be Milwaukee Tool’s second manufacturing facility in Mississippi and is part of the company’s initiative to create 1,200 jobs in the state.
“At the core of everything we do at Milwaukee Tool is our dedication to delivering disruptive solutions that drive enhanced safety and productivity for our users. The new Clinton facility, as well as our ongoing investments in U.S. operations and manufacturing, are critical to ensuring we can continuously deliver this innovation to our end users and distribution partners with speed and agility,” said Steve Richman, Milwaukee Tool Group President.
New Kitchen Cabinetry Plant Opens in Arizona
Heading over to Arizona, SoLLiD Cabinetry opened a new 6-acre manufacturing facility in Chandler in August. The new 215,000 square-foot plan is a major upgrade from its previous 85,000-square-foot plant, established in 2008. SoLLiD manufactures custom kitchen framed and frameless cabinetry.
261 Jobs Coming to Alabama With Establishment of New Tank Manufacturer
Finally, in Alabama, Hanwha Cimarron, LLC, a manufacturer of filament-wound carbon fiber tanks, serving the aerospace, drone, defense, marine, rail and gas industries, announced plans to invest $130 million in a new manufacturing plant in Opelika. The new facility is expected to bring 261 new jobs to the area.
If you’re looking for industrial sales leads for a particular industry, region, company size, and more, consider an IndustrySelect subscription. IndustrySelect gives you live access to MNI’s database of 460,000 industrial companies and one million executives, providing up to 30 data points to help you identify and pre-qualify the best leads. Click here to learn more or start your free demo.
Missed last month? Read New U.S. Manufacturing Plants Announced In July 2021. Or check out our 2020 roundup: 2020 in Review: The Year in New Manufacturing Plants.