DRA - Kentucky

By Trisha Ostrowski


Champion Home Builders

A manufacturer finds the perfect home in Benton, Kentucky

Champion is leasing a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Benton, Ky. The company will invest $6.3 million and plans to hire up to 150 people.The people of Champion Home Builders know a little something about the qualities that make a family feel at home. From the company’s beginnings as a single facility in rural Michigan in the 1950s, Champion is today one of the largest manufacturers of factory-built homes and structures in North America. The company has built more than 1.7 million homes for families around the world.

 

With 28 manufacturing facilities throughout North America and Europe, Champion is also quick to recognize when an industrial site or facility will be a good fit for an expansion. In 2016, when Champion decided it needed another factory to keep up with growing demand for its products, company leaders chose to make their newest home in Western Kentucky.

 

Champion is currently leasing a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in the city of Benton in Marshall County. The company will invest $6.3 million and plans to hire up to 150 people. After refurbishing the building’s existing equipment, such as scaffolds, cranes and bridges, the company will install additional state-of-the-art home-building equipment, and then begin to manufacture upscale homes for distribution to retailers in Kentucky and beyond.

 

A connected community

Champion General Manager Thomas Stoneburner said Benton’s proximity to interstates and easy shipping to multiple markets was a big selling point. “It’s central to our marketplace,” he said. Interstates 24 and 69 run through Western Kentucky, along with multiple parkways and state roads. The Champion facility will serve markets including Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, North Mississippi and North Alabama.

 

Jack Mazurak, communications director for Kentucky’s Cabinet for Economic Development, notes that the area’s transportation infrastructure allows companies in many industries quick access to markets by land, water or air.

 

The Tennessee, Ohio and Cumberland rivers offer barge traffic, and the Paducah and Louisville Railway connects directly with several Class I carriers including CSX and Canadian National. (Paducah, located at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers, was recently designated a free-trade zone by the U.S. Department of Commerce.)

 

Kentucky is also home to UPS air and ground hubs in Louisville, and several DHL and FedEx hubs throughout the state. “Kentucky ranks third nationally in air-cargo shipment volume,” Mazurak said. “Products manufactured in Kentucky can get anywhere in the world virtually overnight.”

 

“It’s such a hub, you can really go in any direction,” said Champion Sales Manager Tandy Roberson. “That’s why Western Kentucky makes a lot of sense for us, or for any other company.”

 

An ideal new home and a warm welcome

Champion would have been hard-pressed to find an existing building that was a better match for its needs. The facility it’s leasing in Benton previously belonged to another home builder.

 

“[The facility] is well-designed for the job,” said Mazurak. “By selecting this particular facility, Champion was able to put itself far ahead in the process versus if it had built new.”

 

Choosing Kentucky also allowed Champion to take advantage of the Kentucky Business Investment program; the company was preliminarily approved for tax incentives up to $2.25 million.

 

The people in this neighborhood? Experienced, skilled and dedicated

The Upper Delta region was familiar territory for Champion. The company has had a presence in Western Tennessee since 1968, and today Champion employees deliver high-quality homes for their customers from a facility in Dresden.

 

That familiarity gave Champion’s leaders confidence in the regional workforce. Stoneburner explains that not only does Western Kentucky offer a sizable and ready pool of available workers, but also notes that “they’re a seasoned workforce. We’re not hiring kids out of high school.”

 

“There really isn’t enough that I can say about our workforce,” said Josh Tubbs, director of Kentucky Lake Economic Development in Marshall County. “They are skilled, trainable, and have a strong commitment to their work and to their product.”

 

Local workers also have the varied skills that are required to build Champion’s well-designed, well-engineered homes, said Stoneburner. “You need welders, you need carpenters, you need shinglers, you need all kinds of people. You want that broad spectrum of available workers to draw on.”

 

“Our existing industries are very proud of their employees, and we think Champion Homes will be, too,” said Tubbs.

 

Lakeside living

When all those welders and carpenters put down their tools for the day, they’re fortunate to live an area with a high quality of life that’s brimming with recreation options.

 

The region has “an abundance of state parks [and] public waterways,” said Mazurak, as well as “a low cost of living and high-achieving schools and post-secondary education institutions in a range of settings from rural communities to small cities.”

 

“The quality of life and the beauty of Kentucky Lake are tremendous assets to Marshall County,” added Tubbs. At 160,000 acres, Kentucky Lake is one of the largest man-made lakes in the world.

 

Kentucky Lake serves as the western boundary of the 170,000-acre Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, an oasis of forests, wetlands and open lands with 300 miles of natural shoreline. Visitors can camp, boat, hunt, fish, go horseback riding or watch the wildlife, to name just a few possibilities. There’s also a working farm, a planetarium and a 700-acre drive-through elk and bison preserve.

 

Strength in diversity

When asked about their visions for the future of Western Kentucky, Tubbs and Mazurak both cite the region’s diverse economy as a major asset that will drive growth.

 

Marshall County has a strong and growing presence in chemicals, while Western Kentucky is home to significant clusters in the food and beverage, automotive supply, air compressor and wood products industries.

 

Champion views the expansion into Western Kentucky as a move that will help fuel the company’s success, said Wade Lyall, Champion’s vice president of sales and marketing.

 

Lyall believes expanding into Benton will help Champion “achieve our goal of continuing to grow market share and be one of the top producers in the industry.”

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