Carry-On Trailer expands Westmoreland operation

Georgia-based Carry-On Trailer, a leading manufacturer of steel and utility trailers, will invest $9.2 million to increase capacity at its facility in Westmoreland County, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Tuesday. The project is expected to create 60 jobs.

To meet increasing customer demand in the northeast, Carry-On Trailer plans to upgrade to a powder coat paint system at the Montross facility. Previously, the company used “a liquid process,” according to Braden Edwards, general manager at Carry-On Trailer.

“It’s been a great system for us,” he said. “But the powder coat process is just an upgraded process [that offers a] better quality of paint to extend the life of the trailer.”

Carry-On Trailer offers utility, cargo, aluminum, dump, equipment and specialty trailers along with a replacement parts program.

Of the company’s seven manufacturing facilities, three have moved or are moving to the powder coat paint system. Edwards expect the other four will adopt the system in coming years.

In 2018, Carry-On Trailer invested $1.6 million to expand its Montross facility, which was built in 2004. That project created 42 jobs.

“Carry-On Trailer is one of the Northern Neck’s largest and valuable private employers and its economic impact is regional and statewide,” Jerry W. Davis, executive director of the Northern Neck Planning District Commission, said in a statement.

In addition to the Montross facility, Carry-On Trailer has a manufacturing operation about thirty minutes away in Callao, which was built in the late 1990s, according to Edwards. Together, the two operations employ about 175 employees.

Founded in Hague, not far from Montross, in 1996, Carry-On Trailer moved its headquarters to Lavonia, Georgia around 2006, Edwards said

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Westmoreland County and the Northern Neck Planning District Commission to secure the project, which Georgia and Pennsylvania also competed to win.

Carry-On Trailer will receive support with job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, a state-funded program which provides services and funding to support employee recruitment and training. The company is also eligible to receive benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic and Infrastructure Grant Program.

In 2018, Rappahannock Community College opened the Westmoreland Workforce Training Center which offers welding training.

“It’s right across the street from our plant,” Edwards says. “It’s a nice marriage between our facility and their facility. Their trainees can come over and see what we have.”