An electric bike manufacturing company will bring 288 new jobs to Algood through a $7 million investment, announced Friday.
The facility will locate on Burton Branch Road. LEV Chief Executive Officer Robert Provost said the company chose the region because an investor from the area recommended the local workforce. Provost said while most electric bikes are manufactured in Asia, the company moved its assembly operations to the U.S for a higher quality product.
“We see the workforce here is going to be excellent for us and we don’t see it stopping at the 288 jobs” Provost said. “It’s on the research and development side, it’s on the assembly, on the quality control and we will surpass all the other brands.”
“It’s all good in Algood and today, it’s all great in Algood because we’ve got a great manufacturer with a lot of great jobs coming to town and we couldn’t be happier,” Algood City Administrator Keith Morrison said.
Cookeville-Putnam County Chamber of Commerce President Amy New said the recruitment of the company focuses on business sustainability and creating a “flywheel” effect for the local quality of life. New said the presence of a leading e-bike manufacturer will help diversify the technology in the region alongside partnerships with the higher education system.
“We want to continue to recruit businesses like Life EV to this area so that they’re here not just like you said, they’re here for the long haul,” New said. “Not people that’ll just be here for the next five years, the people that’ll be here for the next 50 years.”
Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the Florida-based manufacturer is the right fit for the city of Algood as it will provide a significant amount of decent paying jobs in the long term. Porter said increased opportunities for higher wages help offset rising prices and a difficult housing market.
“When it comes to affordability, especially with our younger folks with housing and everything at the prices that it is now, the way that we help them is to bring in higher paying jobs,” Porter said. “Because those higher paying jobs put more revenue into their pockets, more money in their pockets and allow them to be able to purchase homes and the things that they want to for their families.”
LEV has seven retail stores in the United States, mainly in California and Colorado. Provost said the company plans to add 14 more stores in the next two years.
“We’re still going to buy components from everywhere throughout the world but we’re going to be bringing them here to Algood and we’ll be doing the assembly here of those bikes and they’ll just be keep adding more and more jobs,” Provost said.
Provost said the Algood facility will handle assembly for Rad Power Bikes, the largest electric bike company in the country, and will eventually require a second facility to handle distribution.
Over 600,000 people have moved to Tennessee in the last eight years, according to census data, with diversified job opportunities being a driving factor of the state’s growth.
The company recently acquired the Serial 1 Cycle line from Harley-Davidson.