STARKVILLE – After more than a year of planning, a $256 million expansion at Southwire’s production facility off Airline Road took its first step in becoming a reality.

Public officials, Southwire leadership and other industry partners gathered Thursday outside the facility on Airline Road to ceremonially turn dirt on the production facility’s new 380,000-square-foot production site expansion.

“Today is more than just a facility expansion,” Southwire President and CEO Ganesh Ramaswamy said during the groundbreaking. “It’s our commitment to invest in the company, our team members, our communities and also position the company for future growth. Not only the years ahead but the decades ahead. We are 76 years old as a company. We want to grow for another 76 years the same way and more.”

Southwire is a Georgia-based wire and cable manufacturer that first acquired its Starkville plant in 1989, according to the company’s website. The company’s expansion was announced in August as the first successful fee-in-lieu project ever in Oktibbeha County.

In a fee-in-lieu agreement, companies that invest at least $60 million are exempt from property taxes for up to 10 years in exchange for a fee paid to the city, county and school district.

Starkville and Oktibbeha County both granted fee-in-lieu tax agreements to Southwire, and it received additional assistance from the Mississippi Development Authority through Mississippi’s Flexible Tax Incentive program to encourage the expansion.

During the ceremony, Mayor Lynn Spruill said the expansion showcases the success Southwire has had in the city.

“I know that this is a huge investment, but I think there’s probably some more future to it,” Spruill said. “ I look forward to whatever opportunities come with the success that they find in being a part of Starkville. I fully expect them to continue to have that same kind of growth and success here. … I think there are multiple ways that Starkville can support that growth, and we intend to continue to be a major part of helping them be the best that they can be.”

Erik Adams, Starkville plant site leader, told The Dispatch that with the expanded production space, new assembly equipment and renovations to the existing facility included in the project, the facility’s monthly production of cable and electrical wire is expected to grow by about 300%, or to between 15 and 20 million pounds of cable.

Erik Adams, left, Southwire Starkville plant site leader, talks Thursday with Mayor Lynn Spruill following a facility expansion groundbreaking ceremony outside the cable and wire manufacturer’s facility on Airline Road. The 380,000-square-foot expansion of Southwire’s production facility on Airline Road is expected to bring in 139 new jobs in manufacturing, production and engineering, Adams said. Braden Simmons/Dispatch Staff

The project is expected to be complete by January 2028, Adams said.

“We’re starting to see more business for power plants, so there’s more power generation coming online to support all the electricity that’s needed, so we kind of feed into all of those markets as it starts to grow,” Adams said. “For the team here inside the plant, in the community, and of Starkville and even the broader Golden Triangle, it gives us a bit of a generational add. … I mean, this is a 30 to 50 year investment that they just made.”

To accommodate the increased production, Adams said the Starkville plant is planning to hire about 139 new employees in manufacturing, distribution and engineering positions. Adams did not specify salary ranges for those positions but said they will be competitive with the local market.
Meryl Fisackerly, Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO, said the salaries will be either at or above the average for new manufacturing positions in the area, which on average sit at $63,000 per year.

Fisackerly said the increased production from the facility will be a great benefit to the company’s southeast customers broadly but also potentially to local projects in the Golden Triangle as additional energy production facilities like Origis Energy’s $800 million Hope Solar Farm in West Point and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Caledonia Combustion Turbine Plant both come online by 2028.

“When you look at these massive power companies trying to expand their footprint and trying to expand their infrastructure, … you have to have companies like this that are making their product to make those expansions possible and make those investments possible as well,” she said.

Ganesh Ramaswamy, president and CEO of Southwire, speaks to a crowd of public officials, company leadership and other industry leaders gathered for a production facility expansion groundbreaking ceremony Thursday at Southwire’s Starkville facility on Airline Road. The expansion is expected to increase production at the site by 300%, bringing monthly cable production to between 15 and 20 million pounds, said Erik Adams, Southwire Starkville plant site leader. Braden Simmons/Dispatch Staff

With the completion of this project, Fisackerly believes it will signal additional industries to look at Starkville and Oktibbeha County as a viable option for new production sites.

“We always know how important it is to see a company reinvest, but when you see something like this happen, it does tell other companies that are looking to the region and to this community specifically that they know how to do a deal,” Fisackerly said.