There’s not much to smile about in the City of Kyle, let alone the rest of Hays County, as word that SmileDirectClub Inc. plans to cancel the opening of its $37 million manufacturing plant in Kyle.
“They took a companywide pause,” said Jason Giulietti, executive director of the Greater San Marcos Partnership. “COVID hit them hard and what we saw was sort of a domino effect. They have a bunch of ‘smile stores’ around the state, around the country. Those are where you go in and get serviced for your orthodontic needs. As those started to close that obviously limited their demand for the product, which subsequently impacted their manufacturing. Their manufacturing is what was coming to Kyle and was also coming to Tennessee. It was their first foray into growing their manufacturing capabilities.”
Giulietti said it was a direct impact of COVID and the business model SmileDirectClub had and that the company has subsequently furloughed more than 50% of its workforce, which was sizable.
