A green tyre plant expected to open later this year in St. Marys is already producing spinoff jobs in Kitchener.
AirBoss Rubber Compounding, which operates a rubber manufacturing plant on Glasgow Street in Kitchener, announced Monday that it will produce rubber for Green Arc’s tires.
The deal is expected to create about 20 jobs at AirBoss once Green Arc is up and running at full capacity.
Last fall, Green Arc said it would open by February in the former Dana Canada automotive plant in St. Marys, bringing 340 jobs to the Perth County town.
The plant has yet to open its doors, but Green Arc COO Mike DiCenzo tells CTV News hiring is well underway and some regulatory hurdles must still be cleared.
“We’re going forward,” he says.
“In the next few months, we’ll see some activity going on a scale that will please everybody.”
Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr says that even though his city won’t see a large number of jobs coming from Monday’s announcement, it is a sign that manufacturing hasn’t packed up and left Kitchener.
“There are people that really don’t know the plant is here – this is a significant business in our community that still has traditional manufacturing jobs,” he says.
The St. Marys factor is expected to remould radial tires, producing up to three million tyres a year.
Source: CTV News
Published: 24 Mar 2014