Beretta to open Tennessee facility within a year of project’s ground breaking

The management team of Beretta U.S.A. held a ground breaking ceremony last week in Gallatin, Tennessee, on the site of its new facility. The project will take the better part of a year to construct, providing numerous short term jobs to the area and hundreds of longterm positions by the project’s end.

The company plans to open a 158,000 square foot facility within a year of Thursday’s ground breaking ceremony and move its entire manufacturing capabilities to the area within five years. By 2019, Beretta estimates adding 300 jobs to the area.

“Our plan is to have the shell of the building, concrete plate and hardened by April of next year, move machines in April or May, be up in operation in June or July,” said Jeff, Reh, general counsel and general manager of Beretta.

By the end of construction, the facility will house Beretta’s entire manufacturing, research and development, and engineering facilities. In all, the project will cost an estimated $45 million in building materials and equipment.

Within the first year of the facility opening, the company will have 160 immediate openings, some of which will be filled by current Beretta employees — likely from the engineering side — relocating from the Maryland plant.

“We’ve got some great workers in Maryland, some very skilled people, as you can imagine coming from the Beretta tradition,” Reh said. “We have met one on one with about 110 of those people. The 45 or 46 top people that we talked to, 42 of them have already said they wanted to come to Tennessee.”

The Gallatin location is currently an undeveloped plot, covered with grass and surrounded by trees, so the company contracted to develop the site, Pattillo Construction, has to start from scratch. Fortunately, the town, located about 30 miles northeast of Nashville, prides itself on providing a business-friendly environment. Nationally known companies like Gap Inc., RR Donnelly, Servpro Industries — just to name a few — call Gallatin home.

“We’re new to the area, but we’ve been looking at it. This is an industrial park, so this area is specifically designed for industrial type product like Beretta,” said Adam Pearlman, president of the Atlanta-based company.

“Between Nashville and all the surrounding areas we’ll be able to find whatever we need,” he said and added that the company will be hiring qualified contractors from around the area.

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