Mack Trucks is increasing its Roanoke County payload potential.
The company is investing $14.5 million, adding 51 jobs and expanding its Dixie Caverns-area factory by 72,000 square feet, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced during a visit to the plant on Friday afternoon.
The governor and his wife, Suzanne Youngkin, along with company and government officials, broke ground on the expansion. Mack Trucks, which is part of Volvo Group, opened the Roanoke County location in 2020. Volvo operates a heavy-duty truck plant in Pulaski County.
“This is just a huge vote of confidence in Roanoke County and Virginia, by one of the leading companies in the world, to choose to expand further, just four years after they committed to hire 250 people — and there’s now 420 people working here already, with another 51 to go,” Youngkin said after the groundbreaking. “And based on my experience with these guys, they overachieve.”
The expansion is expected to begin in April and conclude by late 2025 and will increase the plant’s size to 352,000 square feet, according to a Mack news release. It will add capacity for two existing medium-duty truck lines, MD-6 and MD-7, and for the company’s emerging medium-duty electric truck line, said Rich Million, Mack Trucks’ senior vice president of strategy and business development.
“I think the reception from the dealer and the customer has been really strong,” Million said. “That’s the reason why we’re expanding. Our dealers are super interested in the product. The customers that we have … want to buy more. We’ve had a great partnership with the local community. The workforce has been strong and talented, so we continue to invest in this area and expand the capacity.”
Youngkin approved a $255,000 grant for the project from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Roanoke County offered a package of incentives totaling $842,420, according to the Mack release. The Virginia Jobs Investment Program will support employee training, and Mack is eligible to receive state benefits from the Major Business Facility Job Tax Credit for new full-time jobs created as a result of the project, according to Mack.
A Roanoke Regional Partnership analysis estimates that this increase in operations will add an annual economic impact of $72 million in Roanoke County and the surrounding region, Roanoke County Board of Supervisors Chairman Phil North said. North credited county Administrator Richard Caywood and his team, including Megan Baker, the county’s economic development director, for bringing the project to reality.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Roanoke Regional Partnership also worked to secure the project, the Mack Trucks release stated.
“We couldn’t be more delighted to celebrate this expansion initiative, which reaffirms the county’s strategy to create an environment that helps high-value advanced manufacturing to prosper,” North told a crowd gathered for the pre-groundbreaking announcement inside the plant. “Mack’s continued commitment to investing in our community not only bolsters our local economy, but also showcases our region as an attractive destination for businesses looking to grow.”