Goodman Air Conditioning To Close In Dayton With Hundreds Of Jobs Lost

DAYTON, TN, (WDEF)-As the snow falls at Goodman’s manufacturing plant in Dayton, colder winds of change will see this facility moved to Texas as part of a super factory being built outside of Houston.

George Thacker, Rhea County Executive,"I think the EDC director, the Dayton mayor, I think we have all asked them if we can do anything incentive wise, to keep them here, the decision is already made."

Staff who work at the air conditioning plant have already been informed of the decision and will have almost 18 months to find alternative employment.

A spokesperson for Goodman based out of Texas said this move is one of necessity due to increased demand for their product and the hope they can manufacture all their equipment in one location.

Rex Anderson, Goodman DAIKIN Industries,"We are physically out of space in our manufacturing facilities and the new facility will give us more efficiencies we can pass on to our customers, we will have a single facility instead of multiple facilities."

The closure of the Dayton facility will result in 4,000 new jobs created in Houston.  It’s estimated to cost 400 million dollars.

Rhea County Officials say they are optimistic they can bring in replacement manufacturing roles.

"When you look at Rhea County the answer to industries  out there is we have one of the lowest tax breaks around, I think we have a lot to offer, quality of life is awesome, we would be very interested to hear from anyone who wants to talk to us about expansions." says Thacker.

Thacker added the decision was made by Goodman’s parent company DAIKIN Industries based out of Japan, almost a year ago.