No comment from Michelin on Canada plant expansion
Additional greenfield land has been made available adjacent to Michelin’s Waterville plant in Canada, reports a local media source. The Kings County Advertiser & Register writes that the Municipality of the County of the Kings in Nova Scotia has formally committed to divesting its municipal airport property in Waterville to make a factory expansion possible.
The Waterville airport covers an area of 94 acres and according to the council’s chief administrative officer, Tom MacEwan, Michelin is interested in a 23 acre section of the property.
Michelin’s plans for Waterville are purely speculation at the moment – in an e-mail sent 14 August, Michelin North America senior public relations manager Brian Remsberg told the Advertiser & Register that “Michelin is continuously exploring opportunities to grow and strengthen our business; at this time, we have nothing to announce.” Nevertheless, Tom MacEwan notes that the only other North American plant making the same products as Waterville has no scope for further growth. “The plant in South Carolina has no ability to expand further, and this one does,” he said. “So, if the product line is going to be expanded in North America, the site is here.”
The newspaper shares that in June 2013, Michelin Canada communications director Deborah Carty said no plans exist to expand the Waterville plant at the moment. However she added that the recommendations put forward in a study on relocating Waterville airport “do allow us flexibility for the future should the need arise.”
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