WOOD COUNTY, W.Va. — Ahead of a planned early 2019 Hino Motors Manufacturing plant opening at the former Coldwater Creek distribution facility in Wood County, hiring is underway for the truck assembly plant.
“There’s going to be a lot of opportunity there and we want to make sure we have quite a few people available to fill their open positions,” said Katie Kelly, market manager for Manpower Parkersburg.
The latest round of interviews came Tuesday during an open house at Manpower Parkersburg, 1047 Emerson Ave.
Those who could not make by 5 p.m. Tuesday, though, have others options.
Prospective workers can register at manpower.com, call Manpower Parkersburg at 304-485-0088 or make plans to visit the office during regular weekday business hours.
Last September, officials with Hino, a Toyota Motor Corporation company, announced plans to invest $100 million in the 962,000 square foot facility located in Mineral Wells.
It’ll be an expansion from Hino’s current Williamstown site which has 245,000 square feet of production space, according to company officials.
At that time, Hino officials said 250 total jobs would be created to add to the 300 people Hino already employs in Wood County.
“Currently, we have about 20 (positions to fill),” Kelly said. “It is ongoing hiring, so once a month approximately we do bring in another group of anywhere from 10 to 12 people.”
Hiring was expected to continue through the coming fall and winter.
“Having assembly work skills is great, but Hino does full training. We do also testing here prior to them going on-site,” Kelly explained. “We want to make sure that they are very prepared for the assembly work.”
Hino started construction on its Williamstown plant for medium-duty trucks in 2007. In August 2017, the company celebrated its 10th year in Wood County.
Coldwater Creek closed its distribution facility in Mineral Wells after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2014.