MOUNT VERNON - Continental Tire North America, Inc. will invest more than $60 million in its Mount Vernon facility, expanding operations and creating about 75 new jobs over the next three years.

"Today's announcement is another big step forward for CTNA and for the Mount Vernon facility, and one that will allow us to take our operation to an even higher level," CTNA CEO Matthias Schoenberg said Wednesday during a news conference at the plant.

"The investment will allow for increased manufacturing flexibility, enabling us to adjust to increased market demand for replacement tires, particularly in categories such as high-performance and ultra-high performance that provide higher added value to both Continental and its customers," he said.

More than $40 million of the investment will go for new machinery and tooling for passenger and light truck tire operations at the plant. The investment will up production by thousands each day and increase yearly capacity by about 2 million tires, Hank Eisenga, vice president for manufacturing at the Mount Vernon plant, said.

The plant's commercial vehicle tire operations will benefit from a $20 million investment, Eisenga said, to be used for new and updated machinery and tooling. The investment will allow CTNA to move manufacture of certain types and sizes of tires to the plant from Europe, increasing the plant's ability to make and supply more tires for U.S. and Canadian markets.

The Mount Vernon plant, which employs more than 2,300 people from the region, already owns more than 90 percent of the company's commercial vehicle tire production in the United States.

The $60 million investment brings to more than $220 million the amount invested by the company in the Mount Vernon facility over the past three years, a sign that the company is bucking the tough times experienced by some during today's economy, Schoenberg said.

"We have achieved this through lots of hard work at the plants, new effective, innovative marketing strategies and through improving step by step our quality and customer service," Schoenberg said.

Employees at the facility, along with support from the community and state, contributed to the plant's success, Eisenga said.

"I think this is a huge accomplishment. I want to take this opportunity to thank these employees for all the hard work they have been involved with this year and over the past few years," Eisenga said.

"We can compete in a global marketplace and we can do it in Southern Illinois and we are proving that."

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DETAILS

Continental Tire North America, Inc. will invest $60-plus million in its Mount Vernon facility, bringing total investments over past three years to more than $220 million.

The investment will result in the addition of about 75 new jobs.

More than $40 million will go to expand the passenger and light truck tire operations, while $20 million will enhance commercial vehicle tire operations.