The interior of the finished goods warehouse
Nokian Tyres celebrated the opening of a finished goods warehouse at its North American factory Thursday, marking the completion of a five-year ramp-up process at its award-winning production facility in Southeast Tennessee.
The 350,000-square-foot warehouse can hold hundreds of thousands of tires produced at the Dayton Factory, where Nokian Tyres has grown its team to approximately 500 employees. The global tiremaker ships tires from the finished goods warehouse in Dayton to its nine-warehouse network across North America, from which the company serves dealers in the United States and Canada.
Nokian Tyres dedicated the finished goods warehouse Thursday at a ceremony with local and state leaders, construction partners and news media. It is already shipping tires from the warehouse to distribution facilities throughout the continent, from Quebec to California.
The tiremaker opened its Dayton Factory in October 2019 and began commercial production the following January. It expanded operations from one shift to four in 2020, added 125 team members last year and completed a capital expansion this year that added light-truck capabilities and increased capacity. The company makes all-season and all-weather tires in Dayton and exclusively distributes them to North American customers.
“The opening of our finished goods warehouse marks the completion of a five-year growth process that took us from a 60-member launch team to a 500-colleague workforce,” said Nokian Tyres Dayton Factory Operations Director David Korda. “We could not have reached this point without great dedication from our employees, and we are also grateful for the support we have received from the community, our customers and our colleagues around the globe.”
“Nokian Tyres has made North America a priority, and the Dayton Factory is the center of those efforts,” said Nokian Tyres Vice President of Passenger Car Tyres Lauri Halme. “Our growth in Southeast Tennessee allows us to serve growing demand for our all-season and all-weather tires in the United States and Canada, which complements our decades-long legacy of winter tire leadership.”
Nokian Tyres has won awards for the operations and culture at its Southeast Tennessee campus. It received Company of the Year honors from the Chattanooga Regional Manufacturers Association in 2021 and was the first Rhea County company to win a Tennessee Governor’s Environmental Stewardship award.
The factory possesses ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 certifications for its quality, sustainability and safety, respectively. The factory is the first LEED v4 Silver-certified tire production building in the world and is partially powered by solar energy. Onsite solar panels provide three megawatt-hours of energy every year.
Pieper O'Brien Herr Architects designed the warehouse, which was built by BC Construction Group. AtkinsRéalis provided project management services.
Later this year, Nokian Tyres will open a Central European production facility in Oradea, Romania, which will join Dayton and Nokia, Finland in its global production network.
Timeline: Nokian Tyres Dayton Factory
Fall 2017 Groundbreaking of the factory site
Spring 2019 Hiring of factory launch team
October 2019 Grand opening
January 2020 Start of commercial production
Summer 2020 ISO 9001 certification
Summer 2021 Start of third and fourth production shifts; workforce doubles
ISO 14001 certification
January 2023 Capacity expansion, workforce increase announced
May 2023 ISO 45001 certification
June 2023 Completion of hiring process – more than 125 new employees
Spring 2024 Capacity expansion to as many as four million tires per year
June 2024 Dedication of finished goods warehouse
The finished goods warehouse