Southwire
Wire, cable and electrical tools built in Carrollton, Georgia since 1950
⚙️ American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Southwire products are made
Carrollton, Georgia
Southwire was founded in Carrollton in 1950 with three used machines and twelve employees. The Carrollton Corporate campus remains the company headquarters and the anchor of its North American manufacturing footprint.
A published Made in America list
Rather than a vague slogan, Southwire maintains a dedicated Made in America page naming the specific product families built domestically — building wire, bare copper and aluminum, MC feeder, PVC jacketed MC, overhead covered conductor, welding cable, extension cords and more.
Tools as well as conductor
Beyond wire and cable, Southwire builds construction tools and equipment: cable pulling and fishing gear, cable preparation and termination tools, benders, pliers and material handling systems.
Southwire does not claim that its entire catalogue is domestic, and neither do we. The company publishes a specific Made in America product list covering building wire, bare copper, MC cable, overhead transmission and distribution conductor, welding cable, extension cords, cable ties and several tool families. Other lines are sourced globally. Buyers who need a domestic conductor should verify the individual part number against that list or ask their distributor for country-of-origin documentation.
The story
Southwire’s roots reach back to 1937, when Roy Richards — a recent Georgia Tech graduate — started a company erecting power poles across rural Georgia. It was the age of rural electrification, and the work put him close to a problem worth solving: the wire itself was scarce, and it came from somewhere else.
On March 23, 1950, Richards founded Southwire in Carrollton with three used machines and a workforce of twelve. The company set out to make conductor rather than merely string it, and it did so in a small Georgia town rather than an industrial centre.
Seven decades later Southwire employs more than 9,000 people and is one of the largest wire and cable manufacturers in North America, still family-owned and still headquartered in Carrollton. Its catalogue has grown from building wire into transmission and distribution conductor, industrial cable, electrical tools and construction equipment.
The company is also known in Carrollton for 12 for Life, a plant-floor programme that puts at-risk high-school students to work on a real production line while they finish their diplomas — a manufacturer treating the local labour supply as something it is responsible for building.
Why they matter
Wire and cable are the least glamorous and most consequential products in American construction. Every house, hospital, substation and data centre is limited by the conductor running through it, and conductor is heavy, low-margin and easy to import. That a large domestic manufacturer still runs a substantial share of that production in Georgia is not a small thing.
Southwire is unusually specific about origin. Instead of a marketing slogan, it publishes a list of the exact product families made in America. That specificity is what makes a claim checkable, and checkable claims are what this directory is for.
For contractors and electricians working under Buy American procurement rules — federal projects, public utilities, infrastructure funding — a domestic conductor source with documented origin is a procurement requirement, not a preference.
Shop Southwire products
Browse Southwire wire, cable, extension cords and electrical tools available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
When was Southwire founded?
Roy Richards founded Southwire in Carrollton, Georgia on March 23, 1950, with three used machines and twelve employees. The company states its roots go back to 1937, when Richards started a business erecting power poles.
Where is Southwire headquartered?
Carrollton, Georgia. The Carrollton Corporate campus has been the company headquarters since the beginning, and Southwire has remained family-owned since 1950.
Is Southwire wire made in the USA?
A substantial portion of it is. Southwire publishes a dedicated Made in America page listing the specific product families built domestically — including building wire, bare copper and aluminum, MC cable, overhead conductor, welding cable and extension cords. Other lines are sourced globally, so check the individual part number.
What does Southwire make besides wire and cable?
Construction tools and equipment: cable pulling and fishing gear, cable preparation and termination tools, conduit benders, pliers, temporary power distribution and material handling systems.