200 job opportunities coming to Newport

By Alejandra Hernández Published: Sep. 24, 2023 at 6:37 PM EDT|Updated: Sep. 24, 2023 at 7:10 PM EDT

NEWPORT, Ark. (KAIT) – On Sunday, DriveSmart announced it would bring a new facility to the city of Newport.

Photos By: Hmedia

The announcement was made in a ceremony attended by company and city officials.

DriveSmart is a vehicle service contract and automotive ancillary product provider. The company will invest up to $5 million in a 13,000-square-foot call delivery facility, according to a news release by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission.

The company will add a variety of positions ranging from sales, customer service, information technology, software development, and more.

“These are going to be office jobs, this gives people an alternative if they don’t want to work in manufacturing jobs, the jobs will average $50,000 in salary and commission, so they’ll be good paying jobs,” said Jon Chadwell, executive director of the Newport Economic Development Commission.

Chris Doyle, president of DriveSmart, said there were several cities the company looked at before settling on Newport.

“We see that even though it’s a smaller town, it’s very forward thinking from the parks to even the bitcoin mining to the facilities and the local restaurants and the distilleries and that’s something that gave us a lot of excitement,” he said.

Doyle said Newport’s Workforce Training Center was also invaluable to the company.

“The biggest investment for us as our business is investing in people and giving that opportunity to get the training and get them up to speed before we bring them in will allow us to accelerate the process and allow us to get to 200 jobs quicker than we ever could imagine,” he said.

At the announcement, NASCAR driver Kyle Weatherman was present with his car. He signed autographs and took pictures with fans.

Weatherman raced in Texas the day before and traveled to Newport for the announcement. On his car, a Newport logo is on the trunk and the backside.

Weatherman’s uniform will also boast the Newport logo.

“This is where we’re putting our roots, this is our new home, it was as important as putting DriveSmart on there, as putting Newport on there because together, we are one,” he said.

The company hopes to have the new facility running by January.