Baxter, Tenn.— Portobello Group, a leading producer of porcelain and ceramic tile in Brazil, has begun construction of its U.S. factory, located here.
“Growing and developing in the American market, incorporating the local culture, generating job opportunities and investments as the result of ‘production-to-partnership relationships’ with distributors, is what guides this new challenge,” said Cesar Gomes, Jr., Portobello Group’s CEO. “We are proud to soon present Portobello America’s new U.S.-based factory. We believe in the strategy, the market potential and, above all, the combination of our know how with the American team and culture.”
The planned facility is slated to be approximately 895,000 square feet in size, and is located here roughly 70 miles east of Nashville. Total investment is expected to reach $160 million, of which $80 million will be allocated to the construction of the new facility. The remaining $80 million will focus on the investment in world-class tile production machinery.
The 92-acre project is projected to be completed by the end of Q4 2022. Portobello estimated the new, state-of-the-art facility will create 220 local jobs.
The company currently has two distribution centers in the U.S. market, strategically located in Florida and Tennessee (where the future industrial facility will be located as well as Portobello America’s U.S. headquarters). “The construction of the factory is the next step of our strategy that began in 2018,” said Luiz Felipe Brito, Portobello America’s CEO. “We have assembled a world-class team, curated a product portfolio that has proven to be very successful and have partnered with the best independent distributors in the country.”