ABB cable plant to employ 100 in N. Meck

Swiss energy giant ABB Group plans a $90 million cable manufacturing plant in Huntersville that will have about 100 employees.

The plant will be built at the intersection of N.C. Highway 115 and Verhoeff Drive. The site is in Commerce Station Business Park, jointly developed by Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson.

State and local officials announced the project Thursday afternoon at Huntersville Town Hall. The project was made possible, in part, by state grants.

The Economic Incentive Committee of the N.C. Department of Commerce approved a Job Development Investment Grant that could be worth up to $2.15 million to ABB over nine years. The One North Carolina Fund is contributing $400,000.

Huntersville and Mecklenburg County also have approved incentive packages, including training to be made available at Central Piedmont Community College. The tax incentives for ABB will be a rebate of 75 percent of its town and county taxes for 10 years. The rebate will be given annually. The company must invest at least $84 million and employ 100 to qualify for the incentives.

ABB (NYSE:ABB) announced plans in May to build a plant in the United States. At the time, the Zurich-based company said it would manufacture high-voltage cable for the U.S. transmission grid.

But the company has been looking for a location since late summer of 2009. N.C. Deputy Commerce Secretary Dale Carroll says several states were in the hunt initially. For the last several months, the competition has been between upstate South Carolina and the Charlotte region.

Jeff Edge of the Charlotte Chamber says Huntersville beat out Greenville, S.C., for the plant.

The announcement also means 30 additional jobs in the Triangle area. ABB will beef up its engineering staff at its Power Services division on the N.C. State University Centennial Campus to support the work of the manufacturing plant here.

Construction of the Huntersville plant is slated to start soon, with the facility expected to open in 2012. Anders Sjolien, regional director for ABB Power Systems in Raleigh, says the exact size of the plant has not been decided yet, as design work continues. It will be built on 20 acres in the 314-acre business park

The average annual wage for the new jobs will be $64,008.

The commerce department, Lake Norman Regional Economic Development Commission and the Charlotte Chamber were among the key groups that recruited ABB. The N.C. Community College System and ElectriCities of North Carolina, the municipal power agency for Huntersville, also were involved.

ABB has looked for a U.S. site to tap into the market for high-voltage cable as the nation upgrades its transmission grid.

The company was formed in 1988 by the merger of the Swedish company ASEA and Switzerland-based Brown, Boveri & Cei. ABB already has significant ties to North Carolina. It moved its North American headquarters to the Raleigh suburb of Cary last year from Connecticut. It has about 500 employees in the Triangle and almost 1,000 statewide.
ABB also is expanding its manufacturing plant in Pinetops, N.C., which makes medium-voltage transformers.

The Huntersville plant is the latest win in the Charlotte region’s effort to recruit major players in the energy industry. That campaign, which markets this area as “The New Energy Capital.” Its biggest coup to date involves a plan by Siemens Energy to invest $170 million in a turbine-manufacturing hub that will bring 825 jobs here during the next five years.

Carroll says the growing energy industry in the Charlotte area was a factor in the decision to locate the plant here. But he says it was just one factor of many.

ABB reported almost $31 billion in sales last year and has 117,000 employees worldwide.

Its North American operation, ABB Inc., employs 15,000 across the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Furniture Deal Brings 200 Jobs To Burke

A joint venture between a Burke County furniture maker and a Michigan furniture retailer will bring 200 jobs to Valdese.

Carolina Artisan Group will design and build custom seating that will be sold by Michigan’s Art Van Furniture. The first six living room and family room chair collections will be available by mid-October.

Kellex Corp. of Burke County is the joint venture partner with Art Van.
“The opportunity to partner with an icon in the furniture industry, Art Van Furniture, not only made good business sense, the leadership style and commitment to the U.S. furniture industry matches the Kellex owners’ beliefs and values,” said Kellex owner Charlie Rice.

Burke Development Inc. President Scott Darnell has been in the job only a few months before the Carolina Artisan announcement. Darnell was head of economic development for the Cleveland County Chamber of Chamber.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

NC to receive $298M to support education jobs

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that North Carolina will receive $298 million to support education jobs.

“There is a huge sense of urgency to get these funds out the door,” Duncan said. “I commend North Carolina for being one of the first to submit their application and thank our team at the Department for making funds available within a matter of days. These education dollars will help North Carolina keep thousands of teachers in the classroom working with our students this school year.”

The $10 billion education fund will support education jobs in the 2010-11 school year and be distributed to states by a formula based on population figures. States can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts’ relative share of federal Title I funds.

Over the last two years, the Department has been able to support 300,000 education jobs through stimulus funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At this time, seven states have drawn down 100 percent of previously allocated jobs funding, while 18 states total have drawn down 80 percent or more. A July report from the independent Center on Education Policy found that 75 percent of school districts that received stimulus funds expect to cut teaching positions in the upcoming school year.

Source: Asheville Citizen Times

Lava opens fabric plant in York

Lava USA Inc. is spending $3.8 million to bring a 30-job fabrics operation to York.

The family-owned company makes knitted fabrics for mattress covers and has started production in the 100,000-square-foot former Sattler Plastics building at 601 Railroad Avenue.

Lava expects to have 10 employees by year end and reach 30 within five years.

Robert Jones is plant manager.

Buddy Motz, chairman of the York County Council, says the new jobs and investment are welcome in western York County.

“It is refreshing to see a globally competitive manufacturing operation added to York County’s rich textile history,” he says.

Founded in 1925 and based in Belgium, Lava also has manufacturing operations in Belgium. It has a sales office in Waterloo, S.C.
The company also makes mattress ticking.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

American Textile Opens Davidson Office

Sometimes we need a reminder that textiles are still woven into the fabric of the Carolinas.

The American Textile Co., which is based outside of Pittsburgh, realized it when the company wanted to grow its bed-fashion product development and marketing segments.

Some of the best folks in those two fields hail from the Carolinas and specifically the Charlotte area, says Blake Ruttenberg, American Textile executive vice president of sales and marketing.

The new hires really didn’t want to leave the Carolinas so American Textile decided to open an office in Davidson. On Aug. 27, opened a four-person office in the Harbor Place development in Davidson.
“We said rather than trying to convince them to move to Pittsburgh, let’s just join them,” Ruttenberg says.

For example, Mette Odom, American Textile’s new vice president of marketing, is the former vice president of marketing at Springs Global US Inc. Others came to the company from the former Pillowtex Corp. and Sara Lee Corp.

The result of the new hires was most of the company’s product development and marketing leadership will be based in Davidson. Ruttenberg expects to add a fifth person to the Davidson office by the end of the year and perhaps more in the future, he says.

But don’t expect the company to move its 200-employee headquarters in Duquesne, Pa., Ruttenberg says.

American Textile is a big supplier of bed pillows, mattress and pillow protectors and pads. It has 400 employees.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Foundation Financial expands in Charlotte

Mortgage lender Foundation Financial Group says it will hire 50 workers in Charlotte by year end as part of a company-wide expansion.
The company, with offices off David Taylor Drive near UNC Charlotte, is filling 25 positions here immediately. It says it plans to then hire 25 more workers in the fourth quarter.

Founded in 1998, Foundation Financial is a residential mortgage lender licensed in 30 states. It has offices in Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Fla., Raleigh and Savannah, Ga. Since 2004, it has funded more than $2 billion in loans and reports loan growth of 7% since January.

“We are trying to meet demand as the company grows, and we love the Charlotte area for our future growth,” says Foundation senior Vice President Mark Boyer. He says the company “wanted to get a footprint in Charlotte” because of its reputation as a major financial-services center with a deep talent pool.

The new positions include entry-level and high-wage jobs in sales, telemarketing, management and licensed loan officers.

The Charlotte Chamber assisted in the company’s expansion. “It’s just another example of businesses choosing to invest here for the long term,” says Jeff Edge, chamber senior vice president of economic development.

The Charlotte expansion is part of a 170-job hiring binge across the company. Foundation Financial says nationwide it will add 85 jobs now and an additional 85 jobs later this year. The lender will also hire for additional positions after opening a fifth center in New York in early 2011.

Foundation’s employee culture focuses on a “blue-collar work ethic,” the company says, with emphasis placed on quality, speed and efficiency. The company says it closes an average loan in only fewer than 17 calendar days, compared to the industry average of 45 business days.

Job applicants should apply online at http://www.onlineffg.com/careers or call Foundation Financial Group at (866) 334-1001.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Oregon Efficiency Firm Plans N.C. Office

An Oregon energy-efficiency firm plans to open its first East Coast office in North Carolina and has hired the former head of Duke Energy’s Save-A-Watt program to run it.

Ted Schultz has joined Ecos IQ Inc. as a senior vice president for strategy and innovation. Schultz had been Duke’s vice president of energy efficiency and smart-grid strategy before leaving this spring as part of a voluntary buyout.

Schultz says he wants to have Ecos’ N.C. office up and running by early 2011. He says he hopes put it in Charlotte, citing the growth of the energy industry in the city. But he says no final decision has been made yet.

He notes that Ecos occupies three floors in downtown Portland, Ore. The general plan is to have a similar operation for the East Coast here. “Of course, that means new business and new jobs,” Schultz says.

He expects to have more details and a decision on the location before the end of the year.

Ecos works with utilities and businesses to design products and programs to reduce clients’ energy use, cut carbon emissions and make their operations more environmentally sustainable. It has offices in Portland, San Francisco, Seattle and Durango, Colo.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Small-business hiring up 4.1% this year

Payroll firm SurePayroll’s monthly Business Scorecard finds continued modest hiring gains among small businesses, but with pay little changed.

U.S. small-business hiring in July continued at the same pace as in June, up 0.2 percent, SurePayroll says. That’s the second consecutive month of 0.2 percent hiring growth. The average paycheck was down 0.1 percent after a 0.6 percent decline in June.

Year-to-date, small-business hiring is up 4.1 percent, while payrolls are down 0.4 percent, SurePayroll says.

Regionally, small-business hiring so far this year is up the most in the Midwest, at 4.5 percent. Wages are up the most in the West, rising 1.4 percent.

In the South, hiring by small businesses is up 4 percent so far this year, while salaries are up 0.3 percent, according to SurePayroll.

As previously reported, unemployment in the Charlotte metro area dropped to 11.2 percent in July from an adjusted 11.4 percent rate in June, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. Mecklenburg County’s jobless rate rose to 10.4 percent from 10.3 percent in June.

A separate report Monday by business software provider Intuit said the number of small-business jobs in North Carolina inched upward by 0.4 percent in August. That’s a modest increase but better than the national rate.

That national rate, according to the new survey by Intuit, was 0.1 percent. That equates to an annual growth rate of 1.2 percent.

SurePayroll’s findings are based on payroll data from small companies across the country.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Study ranks N.C. 8th on jobs potential from energy efficiency

North Carolina ranks eighth among states with the greatest potential for economic development through energy-efficiency policies, according to a report by a national think tank and an energy-investment firm.

It’s the only Southeastern state in the top 10, which is led by Connecticut, California and Maryland. Florida is the only other Southeastern state in the top 20, ranked 18.

The report was released Tuesday by the Center for American Progress and Energy Resource Management Corp.

Ten criteria

“Our country needs a national program to retrofit America’s homes, offices, and factories for energy efficiency — a program that can provide an important answer to the jobs crisis facing our country,” the study’s authors say. “But it will take public-policy leadership to mobilize the private-sector investment that is needed to grow this emerging market. Fortunately, many states around the country are already demonstrating that it is possible to jumpstart market demand for energy-efficiency retrofits.”
It ranked the states on 10 criteria, including the cost of electricity, renewable-energy policies and regulatory openness to efficiency efforts.

All of the states ranked in the top 20 had some renewable-energy policies. But North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast with a renewable-energy portfolio standard that sets a minimum requirement for renewable-energy and energy-efficiency projects.

Modest standard

While the target of 12.5% of the power sold in the state by 2021 due to come from renewables and efficiency is seen by some as modest, it clearly helped North Carolina in the rankings.
But other factors helped raise the state’s score. The report praises Duke Energy’s Save-A-Watt program as a good example of regulatory efforts to encourage investment in efficiency and production. Ohio, which ranked No. 10, also has Save-A-Watt operating in Duke’s service area around Cincinnati.

North Carolina’s relatively low electricity costs hurt its ranking. States with high costs for power obviously have a greater incentive to promote energy efficiency. Six of the top 10 states had power costs well above the national average.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

N.C. gains 9,600 jobs through stimulus

North Carolina ranks No. 19 in the nation for the number of jobs that have been created since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and South Carolina ranks No. 23, according to a report by Onvia.

The Seattle business-consulting firm reports that stimulus-funded projects created 9,617 N.C. jobs and 8,152 in South Carolina.

“While job creation since the Recovery Act’s passage has been slow to take hold on Main Street, job creation in the remainder of 2010 is expected to turn around with lagging states seeing an increase of 50 to 100 percent or more in private-sector job creation,” says Michael Balsam, Onvia chief strategy officer.

The firm predicts North Carolina will lead the nation in growth of stimulus-created jobs for the remainder of the year with a 121.5% increase. South Carolina is expected to see a 13.2% gain for the remainder of 2010.

North Carolina also ranked highly — No. 2 in the nation — for per capita stimulus spending at $960.51. South Carolina ranked No. 33 at $167.66.
To date, one-third of the Recovery Act’s $275 billion for projects to create private-sector jobs has been awarded. In the 18 months since stimulus funds began flowing, Onvia estimates 714,589 jobs have been created nationwide. That figure will grow by 27 percent by year end, it says.

Source: Charlotte Business Journal