Die casting manufacturer announces $10.3M investment, 100 jobs in Madison County expansion

A Michigan-based die casting manufacturer plans to move into a vacant Madison County facility, investing $10.3 million and pledging to create 100 jobs, the company and Tennessee’s economic development arm announced Tuesday.

ArtiCast Jackson will manufacture aerospace, defense and automotive components using high-pressure die casting equipment at the former Pace Industries facility in Jackson.

The company is part of the ArtiFlex Manufacturing, an umbrella of companies that employs more than 1,000 people across design, automation, tooling and manufacturing groups located in Michigan, Ohio and Spain. 

It’s not yet clear what incentives the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development offered the company. Details of such incentives are typically made available to the public on the state’s FastTrack grant project database within a month of a project’s announcement.

Pace Industries, an aluminum die casting company, announced the permanent closure of its Jackson plant in February, alongside its other plants in Arkansas and Michigan. Pace Industries laid off 59 workers from the Jackson facility, according to a letter submitted to the state department of labor. Pace had previously received a $100,000 grant from the state of Tennessee in 2023 to help train new full-time workers for a $2.9 million, 49-employee expansion at its Jackson plant.

Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter called Madison County “an epicenter of economic development across Southwest Tennessee,” in a Tuesday statement.

ArtiFlex Holdings CEO and board chairman Erin Hoffmann said that the new Jackson location will position the company closer to customers in Southeastern states. 

“We can put capital investment anywhere,” Hoffmann stated in a news release. “The talented workforce in Jackson makes this the ideal location.”

“By bringing new life to an existing manufacturing facility, this project will strengthen our local economy and create quality opportunities for families across our community,” Republican state Sen. Ed Jackson said.