Mitsubishi exec focused on hiring (and eating) local
by June 17, 2010 4:01 pm 61 views
Other than the region as a whole, there is at least one specific winner in the decision by Mitsubishi Power Systems to build a $100 million wind turbine assembly plant at Chaffee Crossing near Fort Smith — Doe’s Eat Place near downtown Fort Smith.
Mitsubishi Power Systems Americas announced Oct. 16 plans to build a $100 million, 200,000-square foot wind turbine manufacturing plant at Fort Chaffee. The plant could employ around 335 once fully operational.
James Lillie, Mitsubishi’s general manager of the wind plant to be built in Fort Smith, attended Thursday’s (June 17) monthly board meeting of the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce, where he presented the chamber a $5,300 check to cover its chamber membership and sponsorship of an upcoming chamber event.
Lillie, a veteran exec with the company, said construction on the plant should begin by October with production of the first turbine nacelle by January 2012. He said it was his goal to hire as many employees as possible from the Fort Smith region instead of pulling in “human resources” from other Mitsubishi operations. Between 20-23 of the first employees will be “rotational experts” from the parent company in Japan who will help train and get the plant started.
The local hiring effort includes hiring an HR manager, if possible, from the region, Lillie told the chamber board.
“We want to start fresh here,” he said.
That fresh start also has a domestic element, with Mitsubishi officials having a goal of using all U.S.-based vendors within 3-5 years of the plant becoming operational, according to Lillie.
Lillie had kind words to say about his first impressions of regional amenities, but said the Japanese execs and employees often drift to one certain location.
“They really like Doe’s,” Lillie told the board.
Doe’s opened in early 2004 in the historic Noble Brewery building at 422 N. Third St. in Fort Smith. The restaurant is a franchise of the famous steak and hamburger restaurant founded in Greenville, Miss., in 1941.