CLINTON, Miss. (WJTV) – Continental Tire will be coming to Hinds County.
This comes after a bill that would create more than $500,000,000 in incentives was approved late last week.
Governor Phil Bryant will sign that bill into law.
Conversations about this plant started two years ago.
It sounds like an incredible amount of planning and detail went into the decision, but it all paid off and the entire state will benefit.
It was a celebration of business and government working together to create something big for Mississippi.
“Here we are at Clinton High School to cap off the largest single day of economic success in Mississippi’s history,” Glenn McCullough Jr., the Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director, said.
In two years, Continental Tire will start operating its newest facility in Hinds County.
It’s a $1.4 billion investment that will create close to 2, 500 jobs.
“We’ve been around since 1871. We are one of the largest, if that the largest automotive supplier in the world and the fourth largest tire manufacturer in the world.” Paul Williams, a representative of Continental Tire, said.
Pimento Books on Jefferson Street is just one of the small businesses in Clinton excited at the idea of the auto giant setting up in Mississippi.
“It’s always great. We spent the last decade trying to build Clinton. There’s going to be spillover. Anytime something that big comes to town, it’s great for everyone,” Toni Wall, a representative of Pimento Brooks, said.
The tire manufacturer looked at 11 states and three other countries before choosing Mississippi.
“This is a big deal for us. This is the biggest deal that is happened in Clinton, Mississippi since Mississippi College came down here in 1826,” Phillip Gunn, the Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, said.
“I’m sure they were being lowered by other state in other countries. It was Mississippi; here in Hinds County which they will begin to build what we think may be as large as a 5,000.000 square-foot facility. This is part of our growth as a southern automobile corridor,” Governor Phil Bryant said.
The plan is already being compared to similar past projects like the Nissan Plant in Canton.
WJTV was told the first tires will be crated in October 2019.