An Oak Ridge-based engineering and manufacturing supplier for the automotive, marine and energy industries will spend nearly $30 million to renovate an abandoned factory in Loudon County and add 200 jobs over the next five years.
Protomet Corp, announced plans for the expansion today to meet the company's growing sales.
Founded in 1997, Protomet is growing its business by more than 20 percent a year and doubled its Oak Ridge operations four years ago when the company opened a $10 million plant expansion that included 22,000 square-feet of new space and high-tech automated manufacturing equipment.
"Over the past year, we evaluated properties both inside and outside of Tennessee," Jeff Bohanan, founder and CEO, said. "The former Maremont (Exhaust Products) facility in Loudon County was the right business decision for Protomet. Even though our plan had been to have a single campus in Anderson County, this was a fantastic option for our company, and it allows Protomet to remain entirely in East Tennessee."
Protomet's new Loudon facility will include manufacturing, engineering and R&D capabilities. The company anticipates the Loudon plant will be operational in the first half of 2018.
"Protomet has been one of Tennessee's leading growth companies during the past several years, and I'm pleased to see it expand further with this operation in Loudon," Tennesseee Gov. Bill Haslam said in a statement today. "East Tennessee's advanced manufacturing and engineering base continues to grow considerably and the creation of 200 new jobs by Protomet brings us closer to making Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs."