By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
The Salisbury-Rowan Economic Development Commission has identified the two companies it is negotiating with to possibly bring 320 jobs to Rowan County.
Sustainable Textile Group LLC, based in Arkansas, is interested in the former HanesBrand plant on Thom Street in China Grove. If it chooses Rowan, the company could bring 220 jobs and $10 million in new investment.
Henkel Corp., based in Dusseldorf, Germany, is looking to expand its portion of what most people know as the National Starch plant at 485 Cedar Springs Road in Salisbury, though National Starch no longer has an ownership interest.
Henkel’s proposal would create 100 new jobs and invest $20 million in building, equipment and site development. Its project also would retain 85 existing positions that could otherwise be lost to some other North American facility in the Henkel network.
Robert Van Geons, executive director of the Salisbury-Rowan EDC, said Friday Sustainable Textile Group makes a non-woven fabric with a variety of applications in clothing and health-care products.
“The company has partnered with one-of-a-kind regeneration technology that brings new opportunity to a vast array of fibers and fiber blends,” Sustainable Textile Group says. “The company’s commitment to sustainability follows internal protocol for the most responsible practices in materials, manufacturing and the dedicated workforce that brings it all together.”
The Rowan County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 4 p.m. May 4 on possible tax incentives for the two projects.
Salisbury City Council will hold a public hearing connected to the Henkel Corp. project at 4 p.m. May 5.
Van Geons said Sustainable Textile Group is exploring options across the Southeast in its search for available buildings, a textile-trained workforce and equipment.
Here, the building will need some work, but much of the existing equipment inside can be used, Van Geons said. Former textile employees also are available.
“I feel that, working with the state, we can put together a package that will put us out front as the preferred community,” Van Geons said.
“We have a good building, and we are definitely a front-runner, but these projects don’t happen without all the partners.”
The longtime National Starch operation on Cedar Springs Road is actually divided now between two companies: Henkel Corp. and Akzo Nobel.
In January 2008, Akzo Nobel bought National Starch. In April 2008, Akzo Nobel divided the site by reselling 53 acres, including the electronics and PSA businesses, to Henkel.
Of Henkel’s 53 acres, 11 acres are developed, and 42 acres are available for development.
(The total site has 485 acres.)
The proposed Henkel expansion would add a 75,000-square-foot production/warehouse facility, a 3,000-square-foot office facility and a new entrance from Cedar Springs Road.
Part of Henkel specializes in adhesive technologies electronics with application in printed circuit board assemblies.
Van Geons said the EDC could work with Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in training people for the new Henkel jobs, which would have an average wage exceeding $50,000 a year.
Van Geons said Henkel’s proposed expansion in Salisbury would be part of a restructuring within the company of its North American operations. Part of Rowan County’s pitch to Henkel has been that this would be the best place to establish its East Coast presence, Van Geons said.
Henkel employs 52,300 people in 125 countries.
Proctor Chemical first purchased the almost 500-acre tract on Cedar Springs Road in 1965 to house a $6 million-a-year business of organic specialty chemicals.
In 1969, National Starch purchased Proctor Chemical and expanded product offerings from textile coatings into cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and, ultimately, electronic and industrial adhesives.
The EDC has said the local tax incentive requests for the two projects will not exceed the guidelines set out in the Rowan County Investment Grant Program.
Van Geons is in the process of making impact studies for each project.
The city and county incentives would be “leveraged by significant external funding,” according to Van Geons.
The parties involved in recruiting both projects have included the EDC, N.C. Department of Commerce and Duke Energy. Van Geons credited Tammy Whaley, economic development manager for Duke Energy, with assisting in both efforts.
Ron Leitch has been the EDC’s partner at the N.C. Department of Commerce on the Sustainable Textile Group project. Uconda Duggins, an existing industry specialist, has been the Department of Commerce liaison in efforts to have Henkel expand here.
Van Geons said Henkel employees have played a major role in the process, and it has been great to partner with them.