CLARKE COUNTY, Miss. (Queen City Newsfeed) – State and local officials joined executives from Howard Industries on Thursday morning to break ground on a major expansion project in Quitman, marking a $100 million capital investment in Clarke County and a total $250 million investment across three rural Mississippi communities.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves praised the announcement during a ceremony at the site of the company’s existing facility, calling it a milestone for rural economic development.
“This is a huge day for Quitman. It’s a huge day for east central Mississippi, but this is a huge day for the state,” Reeves said. “It’s not every day you get a homegrown company willing to invest another $250 million, guaranteeing hiring another 450 people across the state, many of them right here in Clarke County. I just couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities.”
Howard Industries CEO Michael Howard outlined the scope of the project, which includes expanding the current 180,000 square foot facility by an additional 400,000 square feet—bringing the total to roughly 580,000 square feet. The expansion will create 300 to 400 new jobs in Clarke County over the next 12 to 18 months.
“We’re excited to announce the $250 million investment into Mississippi, specifically Clarke County and Quitman,” Howard said. “We’ll be adding 300–400 jobs here in Clarke County and investing about $100 million over the next 12–18 months.”
Construction activity is expected to begin within the next two weeks, according to Howard, with site preparation and foundation work starting immediately and structural steel installation to follow within 10 to 16 weeks.
“The contract for the building has been awarded,” Howard said. “So, in about two weeks you’ll see a tremendous amount of activity. We’ll be moving in and taking out a lot of dirt, laying concrete and foundation work… So, the whole project will take probably about a year to complete.”
The expansion will also include a new parking lot for approximately 400 vehicles, a new guard shack, and additional office space.
Howard Industries manufactures electrical transformers and related products used in residential, industrial, and renewable energy applications. The Quitman facility will focus heavily on three-phase pad transformers used in data centers, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and battery storage.
“The type of transformers we make convert from a high voltage to a low voltage,” Howard said. “A lot of the investment here today is related to three phase pads, related to the electric grid growing, and the growing data center battery storage market.”
Governor Reeves emphasized the significance of bringing such large-scale development to rural parts of the state.
“A fully functioning, growing economy in Mississippi means that rural areas in Mississippi are doing well,” Reeves said. “This isn’t happening in the DeSoto suburbs of Memphis. It’s not happening on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It’s happening here in rural Mississippi… That’s exciting to me because… we’ve got a whole bunch of people that live in rural areas and want to stay here, and I’m proud that they’re going to have that opportunity because of investments like today.”
Reeves also expressed optimism about the state’s economic trajectory.
“We think there’s going to be a lot more prospects in Mississippi in 2025,” he said. “Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time.”
Howard echoed that optimism, expressing gratitude for the partnership between the company and state and local leaders.
“We’re just excited to be in Clarke County and Quitman,” Howard said. “The labor force has proven themselves. We’re excited about employing more people here and growing with Mississippi… and we thank them all.”
