Manufacturing firm C&F Group of Galway, Ireland, has announced Kingsport, TN, will be the site for its first U.S. facility. The $12.5 million automotive project, located in the Northeast Tennessee Business Park, will create 450 new jobs over a four-year period, and birth C&F Manufacturing USA Inc (a new stand-alone operations).

C&F Group manufactures decorative and functional trim for the automotive industry, small wind turbines, and racking for the data management industry. Currently it has a presence in Ireland, Germany, Czech Republic, the Philippines and China. IBM, BMW and Volkswagen are some of the company's key international customers.

Tom Hyland, president of C&F Manufacturing USA Inc., explained that Tennessee was the "obvious choice" for the new location after company officials conducted a comprehensive review of more than 20 locations in the Southeast U.S. and across several states.

C&F Group will lease the building located at the Magneti-Marelli site in the business park (a facility formerly used to manufacture automotive industry parts). The city of Kingsport and Sullivan County will each give the firm $250,000 ($500,000 total) to pay for the first 20 months of lease payments.