GE Appliances executive Lee Lagomarcino said U.S. trade policy was the driving factor in the company’s recent decision to accelerate a plan to move overseas jobs back to the U.S.
“Any time we decide to move a factory or redesign a platform, it’s an expensive endeavor, so we have to think through the strategy and trajectory of market,” he told CBS MoneyWatch in discussing GE Appliances’ move to expedite a shift in production of its washers and dryers from China to the U.S. in order to avoid having to pay stiffer tariffs.
“This was the right time to strike on the business opportunity given the environment with tariffs,” added Lagomarcino, vice president, clothes care, at GE Appliances.
GE Appliances on June 26 announced it would invest $490 million in a laundry care manufacturing plant in Kentucky that would create 800 new American jobs. In a statement last week, GE Appliances CEO Kevin Nolan said the reshoring effort “aligns with the current economic and policy environment.”
The company, which has long planned to reshore manufacturing to the U.S., said that high levies on imports from China under Mr. Trump have impelled the household appliance maker to “accelerate the decision-making,” Lagomarcino, GE Appliances’ vice president of clothes care, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Once the plant is fully up and running, the company, a Haier subsidiary, will cease manufacturing in China. “That factory will turn off when the factory in Louisville, Kentucky turns on,” said Lagomarcino, adding that he expects the Kentucky plant to be operational by early 2027.
What jobs is GE creating in the U.S.?
The company is looking to fill research and development, engineering and supply chain positions at the Kentucky plant, openings for which it’s already started posting on its careers site.
“We anticipate a lot of hiring for some skilled trades, and technically advanced manufacturing roles,” Lagomarcino said. “Our research and development team leader will need to hire more engineers, and our supply chain leader will have to hire to fill jobs.”
Why now?
The investment in domestic manufacturing comes as a host of U.S. companies announce plans to reshore operations as they face added costs from Mr. Trump’s tariff agenda.
But the main force behind the production move to Louisville is GE’s “zero distance” philosophy of building appliances where they are sold, the company said in the announcement.
“U.S. manufacturing allows us to be closer to the consumer and the team that designs and markets the products and is involved in the whole product development lifecycle,” said Lagormarcino. “Philosophically, and from a manufacturing and design standpoint, it makes sense.”
That said, the move makes even more sense with tariff increases in place, according to Lagormarcino.
“With tariffs or without tariffs, we think it’s a good long-term strategy. But when you add tariffs, they introduce costs to the situation, and it does accelerate those actions,” he said.
