Cantex Plant Marks Major Victory for Nashville’s Workforce

A major manufacturing project is taking shape in Nashville, Arkansas, bringing new life — and new jobs — to a facility once home to Husqvarna.

Back in July, Cantex Inc., a Fort Worth–based company and the nation’s largest manufacturer of PVC electrical conduit, fittings, and boxes, announced plans to invest $120 million in one of Husqvarna’s former outdoor equipment plants.

Nashville Mayor Larry Dunaway says progress is moving quickly.

“They’ve actually hired a crew, and they’ve been running. They’ve been assembling product for the last four weeks or so, and they’re moving in machines as we speak,” he said.

The massive 352,000-square-foot facility is expected to eventually employ about 140 workers, with full production set to begin in March or April.

The new operation is a big step toward replacing jobs lost when Husqvarna closed its Howard County operations in 2024 — a move that idled more than 700 workers across three local plants.

Mayor Dunaway credited a team of local leaders for bringing Cantex to Nashville, including Vanessa Weeks, Howard County’s first director of economic development, who was appointed in 2023. Weeks, who grew up in De Queen and graduated from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia, has been a key figure in attracting new businesses to the area.

Dunaway says the city is also working with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission to attract additional businesses, including potential users for a nearby 1.3-megawatt solar field at one of the former Husqvarna sites.

For now, he calls Cantex’s arrival a major victory for Nashville and Howard County’s economic recovery.

“A lot of people were involved in getting Cantex here, and it’s been a focus of our whole economic development effort since the Husqvarna announcement,” Dunaway said.