JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri will be the home to the world's most productive Ford assembly plant under an expansion plan announced by the company Thursday, according to a Gov. Jay Nixon news release  

Ford announced an additional 1,200 jobs and a second shift in Kansas City area plant. Missouri offered Ford a tax break package to invest in the area in 2011. Ford can receive the tax breaks if they meet a job creation and investment threshold. The governor's office did not provide specifics about the package or the amount Ford would be able to receive in tax breaks. 

The Claycomo plant assembles Ford F-150 Regular, SuperCab and SuperCrew pickup trucks as part of Ford's investment. By the end of 2014, the plant claims they will employ more than 6,000 hourly workers.

Those workers on the Transit assembly line will work in two-shift patterns and those on the F-150 production line will work in three-crew shifts. The production of the new Transits will bring the manufacturing from overseas. According to Nixon's office, adding the second shift to the Transit production will allow the Claycomo plant to have more capacity to build vehicles than any other Ford plant in the world.

Nixon, along with Ford Motor Company executives and UAW leaders, made the announcement from the plant. Nixon thanked Ford for investing in Missouri.

"Surging demand for the vehicles built here in Kansas City is a credit to the hard-working Missourians whose tremendous skills, creativity and work ethic continue to drive our economy forward," Nixon said in a news release. "On behalf of six million Missourians, I think Ford for its ongoing investment in our state, and the working men and women of this region who demonstrate each and every day the value of Missouri's exceptional workforce."

Ford President of The Americas, Joe Hinrichs, said creating the jobs serves more than just the Claycomo community.

"The job growth we've created in the U.S. manufacturing is a testament to our strong partnership with the UAW, the union's competitiveness and the growing demand for Ford's portfolio of cars, utilities and trucks," Hinrichs said in a news release. "Adding a second shift to Kansas City Assembly not only adds more jobs to this community, it also help deliver more Transits to more customers throughout North America."

The creation of the 1,200 jobs tacts onto the 2,800 jobs added at the plant in 2012 and 2013 as part of Ford's investment in the assembly plant that upgraded the plant's body shop, paint shop and final assembly, as well as the addition of a new stamping plant and the third crew on the F-150 production line.