With over 70,000 hours of work completed, the Nokian Tyres’ Dayton site is on schedule to begin producing tires in 2020 and ramp up to four million tires in 2022. The facility comes at a price tag of over $360 million with over $150 million to going directly into the Rhea County economy.
Hiring to Begin in 2019
Nokian Tyres will begin hiring up to 400 employees at the state of the art facility in the second half of 2019.
“We want to be an employer of choice here in Rhea County,” declared Shayne Ingersoll who heads the company’s Human Resource efforts in North America.
“We want to make sure the facility itself is truly a place people want to be and a place they feel comfortable. We want to be flexible in the workplace with respect to childcare, education, and personal development in and outside the workplace.”
Ingersoll says workers can expect to make between $30,000 to $40,000 per year in addition to benefits. Applicants with a high school education and a strong technical aptitude are ideal candidates.
“We will offer very robust training programs. We don’t expect them to come here already knowing tire building,” Ingersoll adds.
Groundwork is being laid for these training programs as the company is partnering with local educational institutions to establish on and off site programs.
While hiring for entry level plant workers won’t begin for more than a year, the company has already launched a “Talent Network” on LinkedIn where more than 400 profiles and resumes have already been submitted for key leadership positions.
Construction and Production Timeline
Over 250 workers are already employed by ClayCo, the company overseeing site construction. The number is expected to double as construction enters the building phases.
Over 6,000 cubic yards of concrete have been poured in the foundation with necessary pilings to support Nokian’s heavy tire producing machinery.
“Nokian Tyres utilizes state of the art tire manufacturing. Highly automated machines that are custom built just for us,” says Hans Dyrhman, who heads the Nokian’s North American Marketing efforts.
The factory is being designed to produce four million tires per year. Production will begin in 2020 and ramp up to full production by 2022. The property has room to grow and the company hopes to expand production to 12 million tires a year.
Nokian Tyres invites Community
“We want to make sure this is a Nokian Tyres town, so we want the community to learn more about our company and learn more about tires. So we’re hosting two community events on August 24-25, and September 28-29,” invites Dyrhman.
The events will include a tailgate party at Rhea County Football’s home football opener for the Brainerd game on Friday, August 24, and before the Knox Catholic game on Friday September 28. Each event will precede Saturday events at the Rhea County Welcome Center where attendees can expect prizes, discounts, and a variety of activities including a Nokian Tire Toss to be led by Golden Eagle QB Zack Pemberton and teammates.
