The new $560 million Giti Tire plant in Richburg is now in production with 200 employees and some of its first “entry-level” tires going to Walmart for its “made in America” program.
The 1.7 million-square-foot facility off S.C. Highway 9 near Interstate 77 is moving toward having 400 employees by year's end and 1,000 by the end of 2018, Giti officials say.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster was particularly pleased that the state landed the tire plant and the Walmart contract.
“This is a partnership of two great companies,” he says.
About 200 local officials, workers, state execs and tire industry people attended a dedication ceremony on Wednesday. The two-hour event included a tearful speech by Giti employee Arlene McIver, who had been unemployed for as many as eight years before finding the permanent job in Richburg.
“My children didn’t have Christmas for several years,” she says. Then came the interview for the Giti job, when the company started talking about paperwork for health insurance.
“In the course of the discussion, I didn’t hear the words, ‘You’re hired,’” McIver says, her voice breaking with emotion.
Giti, based in Singapore, already sells tires made overseas to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT).
The tire-production lines in Chester County are highly automated with robotic elements and other aspects of advanced manufacturing. Politicians and others took turns feeding the preliminary parts of tires into the huge production line. They signed and numbered the tires when they came off the lines.
Enki Tan, chairman of Giti (pronounced Gee-tee), says the Richburg plant will be all about technology, the internet of things, nanotechnology and other futuristic stuff.
“We do not just want to create jobs,” Tan says. “We want to create jobs of the future.”
The Richburg plant will produce Giti’s Dextero brand of tires, a second-tier tire that will sell as a part of Walmart’s “opening price-point” brands, Walmart executives say. Tier 1 tires are from premium brands of Michelin, Goodyear and Bridgestone tires.
Giti met Walmart officials at one of the giant retailer's manufacturing summits, says Greg Foran, CEO of Walmart US. Walmart needed a commitment for 500,000 tires, and Giti responded within hours to say it could fill the order.
“This goes a long way in fulfilling our ambition for the made in the USA” program, Foran says. “We’re just thrilled to be a part of this.”
Giti also has deals to provide original equipment tires on two brands of Volkswagens.
South Carolina already makes more automobile and truck tires than any other state. Continental, Michelin and Bridgestone tires are made in S.C.
The S.C. plant is the eighth Giti tire plant and its first factory in North America.
Giti’s plans for Chester County were announced in 2014 as a part of then-Gov. Nikki Haley’s two-stop, 7,100-job trip through the Charlotte region of South Carolina. Relocations of both Lash and LPL to the Kingsley development in Fort Mill were included in those announcements.
As the ceremonies were closing, McMaster says the deal with Giti Tire, which later reached the deal with Walmart, just made good economic sense for South Carolina.
“This is the marriage of the great company of Walmart and a highly sophisticated company,” he says, speaking of Giti.