Manufacturing firm GE Appliances today announced a $490 million investment at its Louisville, Kentucky global headquarters and largest manufacturing site to create its most advanced manufacturing plant for production of clothes washers.
According to GE Appliances, the project will reshore production of the GE Profile UltraFast Combo Washer/Dryer and the GE and GE Profile UltraFresh Front Load Washer line-up from China, creating 800 new, full-time jobs and cementing Kentucky’s position as a global hub for advanced appliance manufacturing. The new manufacturing lines will open in 2027.
“We are bringing laundry production to our global headquarters in Louisville because manufacturing in the U.S. is fundamental to our ‘zero-distance’ business strategy to make appliances as close as possible to our customers and consumers,” Kevin Nolan, president & CEO, GE Appliances, said in a release. “This decision is our most recent product reshoring and aligns with the current economic and policy environment.”
More specifically, this investment will move production of more than 15 models of front load washers to Building 2 at Appliance Park – bringing the total area of clothes care production to the equivalent of 33 football fields. Next door, Building 1 at Appliance Park produces top load washers and front load dryers. Building 2 will be redesigned as a model factory, showcasing the latest in automation, robotics, and material-handling technologies, including AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) and AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots). The plant is vertically integrated and will include in-house manufacturing of critical parts such as stainless-steel baskets and cabinets, high-precision metal stamping and forming, and injection-molding and production equipment.
