Staff Report
Published Jan. 27, 2012

Continental Tire the Americas’ plans to invest $500 million in a new factory in Sumter County, expand its U.S. headquarters and create 1,700 jobs earned the S.C. Department of Commerce second-place honors for economic development from Business Facilities magazine.

“It will be a huge shot in the arm for the growth potential of the entire region,” said Jack Rogers, the magazine’s editor-in-chief.

Earning the Silver Award for South Carolina, Continental’s investment in Sumter is estimated to have an overall economic impact of $1.82 billion over the next 10 years and lead to the creation of 6,000 jobs in the region, the magazine said.

In October, Continental announced it will build a 1-million-square-foot manufacturing plant on a 330-acre greenfield site along U.S. 521, south of Sumter. The facility is the largest industrial investment in Sumter County history.

Germany-based Continental, which makes tires and parts for motor vehicles, also said it was investing $4 million and adding 80 employees to its U.S. headquarters in Fort Mill, which opened in 2009.

Continental plans to open the Sumter plant in early 2014. In the first phase, the facility is expected to reach its production capacity of 5 million tires per year by 2017. A second phase is projected to increase the capacity to 8 million units per year by 2021.

Continental executives said they needed to build the Sumter plant to be closer to their U.S. market. Over the past two years, Continental has seen demand for passenger and light truck tires grow annually by 20%.

The Economic Development Deal of the Year competition was open to any organization with an economic development mission limited to a defined city, state or region. Submissions were scored based on their projected economic impact statistics as well as a narrative describing the project’s challenges, originality and likely impact on the local community.

The Gold Award went to the Kentucky-Ford Partnership, which landed a $1.2 billion investment to spur expansion at Ford Motor Co.’s Louisville, Ky. facilities. The investment is expected to create 3,100 new jobs in the coming year and result in a direct economic impact to the area of $5.2 billion.

Bronze was awarded to Mesa, Ariz. for getting First Solar, the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-film solar panels, to build a factory in the Greater Phoenix area. Business Facilities estimates the investment will lead to a 10-year economic impact of nearly $7 billion while creating 1,699 jobs in the first year.