By Shelly Kirchner
Correspondent
SPRING CITY, Tenn. — Spring City’s General Shale Brick plant will restart production the first week in February, according to company officials
The brick-making plant started up last summer, only to stop production in October as the economy weakened. Nineteen employees were laid off.
Ten employees continued handling customer services, shipping and security.
“Now, I am calling all the employees to notify them of production startup,” plant manager Bill Alvis said. “We should be putting them back to work by the second or third week in January.”
The demand for residential bricks has increased recently and many of the General Shale Brick plants will start production again, he said.
Neither Spring City Mayor Mary Sue Garrison nor Raymond Walker with the Rhea Economic and Tourism Council returned calls seeking comment.
Mr. Alvis said the Spring City plant has seven established residential brick products in two sizes. In addition, a new product line is in the works and may be released later this year.
The plant will begin by producing 600,000 bricks per week and work up to 1 million bricks a week by the first of March, Mr. Alvis said.
General Shale has enough material stored at its mining site on Macedonia Road in Spring City to make brick until March, he said.
“If the economy continues to improve, we will continue to produce 1 million bricks a week throughout the year,” Mr. Alvis said.
General Shale is the nation’s largest brick manufacturer. The Spring City plant is capable of producing 800,000 to 2 million bricks a week.