Ten years ago, Southeast Tennessee had neither a Volkswagen nor Wacker manufacturing plant.
Today, with Monday’s grand opening of the Wacker plant in Charleston, the two employ nearly 3,000 people – people who buy houses, eat at restaurants, shop at retail establishments and pay taxes.
True, the two manufacturing plants together have received more than $1 billion in state tax breaks or subsidies, but there is little doubt over time that the state will be heavily in the black from their investments.
More than 2,500 workers at Wacker’s peak of construction were on site at the plant, which the company says is the largest single private manufacturing investment in the state. As the plant ramps up to full production later this year, it is expected to employ 650 people.
And the Germany-based chemical plant’s chief executive said Monday another adjacent plant that would employ an additional 50 workers is “the next logical step.”