Trane celebrates Richland County plant expansion

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The Trane assembly plant in Richland County is now 1 million square feet, and a company president says the company is not done growing.

Donny Simmons, president of Trane Commercial North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, cut the ribbon Wednesday on the plant’s 700,000 square-foot addition surrounded by Richland County leaders, company executives and employees who had been working at the plant off Killian Road since it first opened in 2003. S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster also attended the ceremony.

Simmons said Trane’s parent company, Ingersoll Rand, “looked all over the country for a place to build this facility.” The Northeast Columbia plant, which expanded by 680,000 square feet in 2017, is one of 20 manufacturing locations Trane operates in the Americas. It makes components and units for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

The $100 million-plus addition includes rooftop solar panels that Simmons said is part of the company’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 gigaton. The 1,342-kilowatt solar system will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 74,000 metric tons and will provide about 10% of the power needed to run the plant, the company said.

“Anytime we get the opportunity to build a new factory like we have here in Columbia, we put state-of-the-art equipment in it,” Simmons said. “We put a state-of-the-art customer center here where we can take customers through and show them all of the systems that we produce and how they interact with one another and the efficiencies associated with that. It also gives us the ability to do things around sustainability so we put the most efficient equipment that we have in place.”

With 85 acres at the facility at 400 Killian Road, company officials say there is plenty more room at the site to expand again.

About 900 people currently work at the plant. The expansion added 600 jobs.

“We’ve tripled the workforce that we have, which was one of the primary reasons that we came to Columbia: the talent pool that exists here,” Simmons said.

The area workforce is something McMaster and other state leaders have been working to build for the manufacturing sector. After the ribbon cutting, McMaster toured the plant and talked to employees, who demonstrated their jobs.

“They’re making air conditioners of all sizes and shapes, and they are happy employees,” McMaster said. “They’re healthy and happy employees. It really is a nice environment. This company, like other companies in South Carolina — they take care of the employees.”

McMaster said the Trane expansion is another example of the state’s efforts to lure manufacturers by providing them with a trained workforce.

“With our educational system, with ReadySC, with our technical colleges, we can produce the people who want to work,” he said.

Trane officials also presented a $5,000 grant to EdVenture Children’s Museum for STEM programs. The donation from the Ingersoll Rand Foundation will sponsor the museum’s 2020 summer Robotics Camp, providing for attendance fees for 10 children from needy families.