Whirlpool will build $55 million plant, employ 1,100 in northern Mexico

Whirlpool Corp.'s division in Mexico has announced it will build a $55 million plant in the northern city of Apodaca, employing 1,100 people.

That number may sound familiar. The appliance maker announced in August it was shutting down its Evansville manufacturing line in mid-2010 and moving it to Mexico. Evansville's line employs 1,100 people.

Jill Saletta, director of external relations for Whirlpool, confirmed in a statement Friday that the jobs being created in Apodaca are those from the Evansville plant.

"As announced in August, the production of refrigerators currently made at Evansville, and the 1,110 jobs associated with that production, would be transitioning to one of our existing facilities in Mexico, which would be named later," she said. "Yesterday, our Supsa plant, located in Apodaca County, Monterrey, made the announcement that the production and associated jobs would be going to that location."

According to a report on the Web site tradingmarkets.com, the Mexican plant will begin production in 2010 and produce 18- and 23-cubic-foot refrigerators for "both the domestic market and export," according to the report.

Apodaca is a city of 393,000 people about 100 miles south of the U.S.-Mexico border at Nuevo Laredo.