VIDEO REPORT: 1,000 new jobs will result from a new supplier park for Nissan in Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Growth is on the horizon for Nissan North America. The company just announced further expansion of its U.S. manufacturing footprint.

"This auto plant is the largest automobile manufacturing plant in the history of the Americas," said Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam. "And what they are committing to is to continue to grow that."

Gov. Haslam and Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd joined Nissan officials at the Tennessee State Capitol, announcing a new $160 million supplier park project at Nissan's Smyrna, Tenn. vehicle assembly plant.

The project will support more than 1,000 newly created supplier jobs.

"A supplier center allows us to have a lower cost of both inbound and outbound (logistics), and has the process of suppliers more integrated, which allows us to have better productivity, better efficiency, better quality and a lower cost," said José Muñoz is executive vice president, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. and chairman, Nissan North America, Inc. "So it not only helps us to increase our capacity, our market share, but also our profitability."

Current plans for the project call for construction of an integrated logistics center to be located on Nissan's Smyrna campus. The new facility will be more than 1.5 million square-feet in size.

"It is going to be 1.5 million square-feet, which is around 24 football fields, and they will be able to supply the parts within 1.5 miles of the final assembly point," said John Martin, senior vice president, Manufacturing, Supply Chain Management and Purchasing, Nissan North America, Inc. "This means we are going to cut out an awful lot of transportation, which is great from the point-of-view of the economics of supply, but also environmentally very beneficial."

The Nissan Smyrna Plant began operations in 1983 and employs more than 8,400 people. In 2014, this plant assembled more than 648,000 vehicles, making it the highest producing automotive assembly plant in North America. Production for the all-new 2016 Maxima, which was shown for the first time during Nissan's recent Super Bowl ad, will begin in Smyrna later this year.

"Right now the feeling in Smyrna is to be the biggest car factory in the history of the Americas – wow," said Martin. "And you know, when you walk around, the people who proudly wear the stars and stripes, they feel 'I'm a proud American worker building cars in the United States for American consumers.' It goes down great. They really feel good."

Tennessee was named 2014 and 2013 "State of the Year" for economic development by Business Facilities magazine. The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development's mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs.

"If you look back in the 30-plus years that Nissan has been in Tennessee – to have added 12,000 employees – but not just that, to have added good jobs, to continue to make capital investment but also to be a good part of the community," said Haslam. "We love it in Tennessee that literally you see Nissan people involved in all sorts of things in terms of their employees around the state. That is what you want out of a corporate citizen. It is continued investment, continued employment growth and being a part of the community. Nissan has done all of that."

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