OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2012.  (NYSE: GE) — The good news just keeps getting better for GE Appliances and the Louisville community. In anticipation of exceptional sales of its new line of French door bottom-freezer refrigerators, GE will add 380 second shift production employees later this summer and has increased the number of new production employees working in the facility from the recently announced 600 to a total of 772 employees. In addition to the 772 new production positions, GE Appliances added about 100 salaried positions to support the new plant and product.

“Bottom-freezer refrigerators are the fastest growing configuration of refrigerators on the market today, so we had contingency plans for a two-shift operation,” said Paul Surowiec, refrigeration product general manager at GE Appliances. “Our customers are extremely excited about our industry-leading ice and water dispenser technology with features like Hands-free Autofill, which automatically fills almost any container with filtered water and a hot water dispenser, capable of serving up tea and oatmeal in minutes. We are adding additional production capacity to ensure we can meet the demand.”

“This is great news for our community. These are good jobs, and the tremendous investment GE is making at Appliance Park has spurred significant revenue and job growth for hundreds of local suppliers who have been involved with the bottom-freezer refrigerator and the GeoSpring™ Water Heater,” said Metro Louisville Mayor Greg Fisher. “The growth of GE’s manufacturing operation at Appliance Park and the ripple effect on our community continues to validate the city and state governments’ decisions to encourage GE to choose Louisville when GE was deciding where to invest. We couldn’t be more thrilled with their progress.”

GE Appliances Revitalization Update
In February of this year, GE Appliances opened its GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater facility in Louisville, Ky., kicking off the USD 1 billion investment GE plans to make by 2014 to upgrade all its product lines and create new factories for products not previously made in the U.S., such as the GeoSpring Hybrid Water Heater, bottom-freezer refrigerators and frontload washing machines.

In addition to the hybrid water heaters and bottom-freezer refrigerators now being produced in Louisville, preparation is underway to open another plant to make frontload washing machines and matching dryers in early 2013. Extensive investment is being made in Louisville to enhance product offerings in top load washing machines and dishwashers. By 2014, GE will also be making upgrades in side-by-side refrigerators made in Bloomington, Ind., and cooking products made in Lafayette, Ga.