Waukesha-based Generac Power Systems will open a new 421,000 square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in South Carolina. The company today announced its plans to acquire and upgrade the facility in Trenton, S.C.
The facility will support increased demand for standby generators and associated energy technologies while serving as a distribution center to consumers in southeastern United States.
“With significant demand for Generac products across the country, we’re excited to expand our operational capacity to accommodate the increased interest in residential power systems,” Generac president and chief executive officer Aaron Jagdfeld said in a statement.
The company expects its new operations to generate about 450 new jobs over the next two years. The facility will open by the third quarter of 2021 and has the capability to expand further, according to a press release.
Generac Holdings Inc. had been searching for a new manufacturing and distribution facility since the third quarter of 2020, which is when the company’s sales increased 17% to $701 million as a number of high-profile power outage events and more people working from home drove interest in the company’s home standby generators.
The new facility, located at 30 Industrial Park Boulevard in Trenton, sits between Charleston, Columbia, Charlotte and Atlanta.
“The Trenton facility is strategically located closer to our customers in the southern part of the country and has access to a local labor force capable of helping us meet growing demand while strengthening our market-leading position,” Jagdfeld said in a statement.
Generac previously announced it would combine several of its recently acquired companies with its existing connectivity business for a new organization called Energy Technology. The new business consists of all Generac businesses whose primary focus is on storage and energy management product and services, including recently acquired Pika Energy, Neurio Technologies and Enbala Power Networks.
The company’s latest acquisition, Enbala Power Networks, solidified the company’s push into the internet of things space, which began with Generac integrating IoT technology in its products.
