Whirlpool, the nation’s largest appliance maker, which bought Iowa-based Maytag earlier this year, will close the flagship plant in Newton but this week announced plans to grow it elsewhere.
Whirlpool spokeswoman Jodi Lau says the company will expand operations at another plant in Iowa. Up to $11 million will go toward the expansion of a refrigeration line in Amana. She says it’ll increase manufacturing capacity for the popular line of bottom-freezer refrigerators and will create up to 400 nwe jobs in Amana over the next two years.
Lau says the company expects to begin hiring later this year, perhaps as soon as late summer. Whirlpool got an incentive to make that decision, as the Iowa Economic Development Board approved $5 million in funding in exchange for its promise to keep jobs in the state and create some more.