Whirlpool bets on U.S. manufacturing
Whirlpool announced a US$60 million investment to build a new Ohio facility that could create up to 150 jobs, a concrete sign appliance makers are still putting capital into U.S. production. For homeowners that often means faster access to replacement parts and models targeted at American kitchens — and it’s a reminder manufacturers are keeping some production closer to buyers. (prnewswire.com).
Whirlpool is turning a former solar-panel factory in Perrysburg, Ohio, into an appliance-parts plant, and the company says it will spend more than $60 million and add 100 to 150 jobs over the next two years. The building sits at 1775 Progress Drive and will make components and subassemblies for washers and dryers. (whirlpoolcorp.com) This was announced on April 10, 2026, at an event in Clyde, Ohio, not in Perrysburg, because the new site is being built to feed Whirlpool’s existing laundry network in northwest Ohio. Whirlpool says the Perrysburg plant will support its domestic operations and especially its washer and dryer factories in Clyde and Marion. (whirlpoolcorp.com) That detail explains why this is not a brand-new product bet so much as a supply-chain bet. Instead of buying as many parts from farther away, Whirlpool is adding a nearby hub that can stamp, assemble, and move pieces into the factories that already build finished machines. (usatoday.com) Whirlpool already has deep roots in those two towns. The company says it employs about 4,500 workers across Clyde and Marion, its Clyde facility has operated since 1952, and Clyde is the largest washing-machine plant in the world. (whirlpoolcorp.com) The Perrysburg site also changes what that old building is for. City officials said Whirlpool bought the former Toledo Solar site, and the company plans to retrofit it with advanced manufacturing technology and automation instead of building from scratch on empty land. (perrysburgoh.gov) This comes just months after Whirlpool announced a much bigger Ohio push. In November 2025, the company said it would invest $300 million in its Clyde and Marion laundry operations and create 400 to 600 jobs there, so the new Perrysburg plant looks like the next piece of the same expansion. (whirlpoolcorp.com) Whirlpool is framing all of this as a U.S. manufacturing strategy, and the numbers are large enough to show it is not just a slogan. The company says it supports about 14,000 manufacturing jobs across 10 U.S. plants, and the Perrysburg facility would become its eleventh U.S. factory. (whirlpoolcorp.com, cleveland.com) For buyers, the immediate effect is less about a new Whirlpool logo on a box and more about where the guts of the machine come from. If more washer and dryer parts are made a short truck trip from Clyde and Marion instead of crossing oceans or multiple states, Whirlpool gets more control over timing, inventory, and model changes for the U.S. market. (reuters.com, whirlpoolcorp.com) The politics around the announcement were visible too. Reuters reported that United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appeared at the event, which shows how closely factory expansion, tariffs, and domestic production are now being tied together in public. (reuters.com, usatoday.com) So the cleanest way to read this announcement is as a map, not a headline. Perrysburg will make parts, Clyde and Marion will turn those parts into washers and dryers, and Whirlpool is spending real money to keep more of that chain inside Ohio. (whirlpoolcorp.com, perrysburgoh.gov)
