STE-THERESE, Que. (Oct. 4, 1999) — Paccar Inc. officially opened its $135-million state-of-the-art truck manufacturing plant in Ste-Therese, Que., last week, as the company seeks a stronger foothold in the medium-duty truck market.

The opening ceremony, which included employees and officials from local, provincial, and national governments, featured the presentation of the plant’s first truck — a Kenworth T300 — to Elie Fallu, mayor of Ste-Therese.

The ceremony capped nearly 18 months of construction to expand and refurbish an existing Paccar truck plant, which the company closed in 1996 amid a market downturn and a bitter strike. The factory was considered outmoded and inefficient.

The new 425,000-square-foot facility, one of the industry’s most advanced, has a capacity of 20,000 trucks per year. It will produce a new medium-duty truck platform for Paccar’s Peterbilt Motors and Kenworth Truck divisions.

The plant reopening is expected to help revitalize the Ste-Therese area. Contracts granted to local firms were worth close to 70% of the plant’s total cost, said Paccar chairman Mark Pigott. The plant was financed with a private/public-funding package, which included a $110-million investment by Paccar, and a $13.5 million loan from the governments of Canada and Quebec under the Canada-Quebec Subsidiary Agreement on Industrial Development (1991).

Approximately $2 million in employee training costs will be paid from the new Fonds de developpement industriel du Quebec (Quebec Industrial Development Fund.) A $10 million loan from Quebec through the Fonds pour l’accroissement de l’investissement prive et la relance de l’emploi (FAIRE) (Fund to Promote Private Investment and Job Revitalization) also was included.