Target Industries
Greater assets for cross-sector success.
Greater Grenada is revved and ready for success across a range of sectors: A central location plus omni-modal logistics puts major markets just hours away, and allows for cost-effective comprehensive domestic and global reach. A low-cost labor force, 250,000+ strong, includes skilled metal workers and other manufacturing pros, skills honed through leading-edge training and critical experience with global manufacturers. Multiple industrial sites, including the state’s largest industrial park on I-55, offer high-powered infrastructure and customized parcels.
Other Vital Sector Advantages Include:
Food Processing
Access to high-yield harvests including soybeans, corn, wheat, rice, pecans, potatoes, tomatoes, grapes, peaches and watermelon.
Access to high-capacity, low-cost water with a municipally sourced water capacity of 4 million gallons per day (GPD) and waste water treatment capacity of 3.4 million GPD.
High-level expertise at Mississippi State University’s MAFES (Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station), rankin 6th in the nation in agricultural funding, with more than 150 MAFES scientists at work on more than 585 projects.
Aviation and Aerospace
Cluster proximity just 40 miles from GE Aviation.
Outstanding facilities and operational sites at Grenada’s Airport Industrial Park.
Superb flight facilities at the Grenada Municipal Airport, offering a 7,000-ft. runway and ILS along with critical experience as a preferred preparedness training site for Camp McCain National Guard Post and Camp Shelby Military Post.
Top-flight expertise at Mississippi State University (MSU), home of a nationally respected aerospace engineering program and the Raspet Flight Laboratory. MSU was recently named a Center of Excellence for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Also, Delta State University’s graduate and undergraduate commercial aviation program has become a leading feeder for the aviation industry, ranked as one of the top 50 flight schools in the U.S.
Plastics
Proximity to potential customers including GE Aviation, Modine, Lennux Corporation, Ice Industries in Grenada; the Nissan, Toyota, PACCAR assembly plants, all less than 90 miles from Grenada; and the Mercedes-Benz assembly plant less than 200 miles away.
Leading expertise, multi-disciplinary resources include the Mississippi Polymers Institute at University of Southern Mississippi; the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University; and the Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence at University of Mississippi.
Automotive
Proximity to OEM and tier suppliers, which include Nissan, Toyota, Paccar assembly plants less than 90 miles from Grenada, and Mercedes-Benz assembly plant less than 200 miles away.
Proven training expertise and skill: Holmes County Community College, a designated Key Training Partner for Nissan, has trained over 30,000 automotive workers.
Resources and knowledge for automotive excellence at the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University and the Mississippi Polymers Institute at University of Southern Mississippi.
Timber
Strategic location in the heart of America’s “wood basket,” in a state comprised of 65% forestland, with value of annual timber harvests exceeding $1 billion and total timber and forest products output in excess of $17 billion annually.
Four-sector opportunity with thriving Mississippi operations in solid wood products; pulp and paper; wood furniture and related products; and timber harvesting and transport.
Cluster proximity to Resolute Forest Products in Grenada, as well as International Paper mills and Weyerhaeuser operations approximately 90 miles away.
Expertise to flourish from the Mississippi State University Extension Service and MSU’s Forest & Wildlife Research Center.
Defense
Collaborative partnerships with Camp McCain National Guard Post in Grenada and Camp Shelby Military Post, located just over 200 miles away. These partnerships, along with Grenada’s high-performance municipal airport facilities, have made Grenada the preferred site for large-scale on-going civilian defense exercises such as Ardent Sentry 2019, an 8-state, multi-agency exercise in earthquake preparedness.
Strategic location proximity equidistant from Mississippi’s other nearly two dozen military sites.
Multi-sector opportunity including rapid prototyping, selling to global markets, and development of dual-use products.
Cluster proximity to companies including GE Aviation, Stark Aerospace (a global defense contractor manufacturing UAS and missile defense canisters among other products), American Eurocopter and Aurora Flight Sciences.
Top-level expertise from the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University; Mississippi Polymers Institute at University of Southern Mississippi (USM); USM’s Center for Logistics, Trade and Transportation; and the Mississippi Procurement Technical Assistance Program.
Transportation and Logistics
Strategic location halfway between Jackson, MS, and Memphis, TN, and a half-day drive from major markets including St. Louis, Dallas, Atlanta and New Orleans.
Superb omni-direction highway reach provided by fast access to the north-south I-55 stretching from south Louisiana to Chicago; the north-south U.S. Route 51 stretching from New Orleans to the Great Lakes; and U.S. Route 82 running from coastal Georgia to southern New Mexico.
Thriving manufacturing sector and manufacturing sites including Mississippi’s largest industrial park on I-55, requiring robust delivery service of products and materials.
