Tue August 1 06:00 am 2023 in category Product news
Nokian Tyres Finishes Hiring 125 Workers at Dayton Factory
The company’s workforce at the factory stands at more than 475 as it prepares to double capacity by 2024
DAYTON, Tenn. – Nokian Tyres has completed the hire of 125 workers at its North American factory in Southeast Tennessee as the company prepares to double production at the facility by 2024. The recruitment campaign that took place in March through July brings the team at the Dayton, Tennessee factory to more than 475 employees.
The majority of new team members serve as production operators. The company also hired specialists in maintenance, quality, logistics and general administration. New employees are working alongside mentors in each production area in a personalized training program designed to maintain quality and culture as the factory grows.
“Nokian Tyres sets out to be an employer of choice in Southeast Tennessee, and our new hires are joining a vibrant and successful team,” said Dayton Factory Operations Director David Korda. “We remain impressed by the quality of the workforce in Southeast Tennessee, and we are eager to help our team members grow their careers as we grow our production capacity.”
Nokian Tyres continues to add equipment that will allow the Dayton Factory to produce as many as four million all-season and all-weather tires per year by 2024. Construction also continues on a 600,000-tire warehouse next to the production building that will be ready in summer 2024. The storage facility will join the company’s nine-warehouse network throughout the U.S. and Canada and will serve a growing volume of customers in the Sun Belt.
Nokian Tyres opened its Dayton Factory in fall 2019 and began producing tires for commercial sale in early 2020. A 2021 hiring campaign enabled the factory to expand to four shifts and 24/7 production. The current equipment expansion allows Nokian Tyres to add light truck tires to the Dayton Factory’s product mix. Products crafted at the factory include the all-season Nokian Tyres One, the all-weather Nokian Tyres WR G4 and the all-terrain Nokian Tyres Outpost family.
In its three-plus years of operations in Dayton, the company has earned recognition for its workplace culture, operations and sustainability. Nokian Tyres was the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association’s Company of the Year in 2021, and the company was the first in Rhea County to receive the prestigious Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award.
The Dayton Factory’s production building is the only tire production facility in the world to possess LEED v4 Silver certification, and its LEED v4 Gold-certified administration building is fully powered by energy generated from onsite solar panels.
About the Dayton Factory
- Nokian Tyres opened its North American production facility in 2019 and began producing tires there for commercial use in January 2020
- The company now employs more than 475 workers at the Dayton Factory after adding 125 team members in March through July
- At full capacity, the Dayton Factory will produce as many as four million all-season and all-weather tires annually for sale in the North American market. The facility is scheduled to reach full capacity by 2024
- The new onsite tire storage warehouse will have capacity of 600,000 tires and will open in mid-2024
- The 830,000 square-foot facility includes a LEED v4 Gold-certified administration building, the only LEED v4 Silver-certified tire production building in the world, and a five-story mixing building where the company formulates rubber compounds for the tires it crafts in Dayton
- The Dayton Factory is part of a global production network that also includes Nokian Tyres’ facility in Nokia, Finland. In May 2023, the company broke ground on a new tire production factory in Oradea, Romania, that is estimated to start commercial production in 2025