Jones Plastic & Engineering, a Kentucky company that got its start making plastic bottle caps for whiskey bottles, has been working with G.E. Appliances for four decades.
But the family-owned business plans to expand to accommodate more demand for its control panels and other parts from G.E. Appliances, which is shifting production of all its front-load washing machines and dryers from China to a new $490 million factory in Louisville, Ky.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said Ryan Jones, chief operating officer. “We’re going to be investing in new machinery, new automation, auxiliary equipment,” he said, adding that the company would hire more than a dozen hourly and salaried employees.
G.E. Appliances on Thursday announced $150 million in new contracts to 18 suppliers in 10 states. The contracts, which will supply components for the washers and dryers, are part of a longstanding corporate strategy to bring production back to the United States from China and work more closely with suppliers to design home appliances and their components.
General Electric sold its appliance division in 2016 to a Chinese multinational that is now called Haier Smart Home. Since then, G.E. Appliances has spent more than $3.5 billion on its operations in the United States, investments that the company said helped it double its revenue.
The cold-rolled steel used for the body of the washers and dryers that will be produced in Louisville will be made by U.S. Steel in West Mifflin, Pa. The hoses and washer gaskets will come from Ilpea Industries, in Aurora, Ohio. The washer dispenser boxes will be produced by PSI Molded Plastics, in South Bend, Ind.
“We are wanting to partner with these companies to say, ‘Help us make our designs better. Help us make them easier to manufacture,’” said Julie Wood, senior director of corporate communications at G.E. Appliances.
The strategic shift promises a high degree of collaboration between the manufacturer and its partners. For instance, engineers at G.E. Appliances have been working closely with engineers at RCM Industries, an Illinois-based aluminum die caster that will be making parts that stabilize the drums of front-load washers.
G.E. Appliances began re-shoring parts of its supply chain in 2010 in response to the rising costs of transportation and labor in Asia, as well as a fear that the company would lose its edge in innovation if it kept manufacturing abroad.
In August, it announced plans to invest $3 billion more in U.S. projects, including the new laundry factory in Louisville, a milestone project that involves gutting a 70-year-old plant in Appliance Park and outfitting it with the machines required to build the G.E. Profile UltraFast Combo and other front-load G.E. Profile washers and dryers.
The laundry plant, which is expected to begin production in 2027, has been in the works for more than three years. But the timeline was accelerated because of the Trump administration’s tariffs, Ms. Wood said. Suppliers received contracts worth $330,000 to $41 million, G.E. Appliances said. They were in Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Alabama and California.
Farah Stockman is a Times business reporter writing about manufacturing and the government policies that influence companies that make things in the United States.
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