Mack Trucks plant in Roanoke County to create 250 jobs

Gov. Ralph Northam announced Thursday that Mack Trucks will create 250 jobs at a Roanoke County facility building a new line of medium-duty trucks. The company, part of the Volvo Group, plans to invest $13 million in the project, according to state and county officials.

The plant, to be known as Mack’s Roanoke Valley Operations facility, will be housed in the former LSC Communications building in Salem. The Roanoke Regional Partnership anticipates that the project — set to be fully operational in the next few months, according to spokesman Thomas Becher — will have an overall annual impact of $364 million at full operation and generate 594 secondary jobs.

Northam approved a $700,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist the county with landing the project, and the Virginia Jobs Investment Program will provide training, funding and other services at no charge to Mack Trucks. Roanoke County plans to provide a matching performance grant based on employment and investment goals.

“We look forward to the opportunities our new medium-duty product line will bring for the company, our employees and the Roanoke Valley community,” Mack Trucks President Martin Weissburg said in a statement. “We’re very grateful to the commonwealth of Virginia and Roanoke County for their support of this project, and we look forward to growing this new business and being a successful and engaged corporate citizen.”

The announcement comes amid shifts in Volvo Group’s New River Valley workforce over the past few months. In June, the Swedish company announced it would hire 777 more people in Pulaski County over the next six years as part of a $400 million expansion of its North America New River Valley assembly plant.

But in late November 2019, Volvo announced the January 2020 layoff of 700 workers at the Dublin plant because of a decline in orders of Class 8, heavy-duty trucks. Last October, 3,000 workers at the Dublin plant were temporarily laid off during a United Automobile Workers strike at Mack Trucks facilities in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida.

LSC Communications closed its Salem book manufacturing plant in July 2017, laying off 140 workers. The building is 278,000 square feet.

“Landing Mack Trucks’ new medium-duty truck production plant is a tremendous win that builds on our efforts to make Virginia a leader in automotive manufacturing,” Northam said in a statement. “Virginia has enjoyed a longstanding partnership with the Volvo Group, which includes Mack, and we are confident that the company will be a valuable addition to Roanoke County and the entire commonwealth.”