MYRTLE BEACH — A company that will build a new facility in the Myrtle Beach area plans to start hiring for 34 new manufacturing jobs at the beginning of next summer.
BauschLinnemann North America, a producer of surfaces and edge bandings for furniture makers, plans to consolidate its operations in Myrtle Beach, Conway and Greensboro, N.C., into a new 75,000-square-foot manufacturing and office facility on Harrelson Boulevard near the Myrtle Beach International Airport, according to officials with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. The facility is expected to be completed by July, at which time the company will begin hiring. The site has room to expand to 200,000 square feet.
EDC officials made the announcement Friday about BauschLinnemann and confirmed that it is one of two companies the economic development group has been pursuing to bring new manufacturing jobs into the area.
This comes after the state Budget and Control Board approved Wednesday the issuance of a $10 million revenue bond to help BauschLinnemann expand its manufacturing jobs in the area to 55 over a two-year period in Horry County.
The 55 jobs, which include an existing 21 employees at BauschLinnemann’s Myrtle Beach and Conway facilities, will be added in two years at the new location, Bernhard Dupmeier, the company’s CFO and executive vice president, told The Sun News on Wednesday.
BauschLinnemann, which was dubbed “Project BL” by business recruiters, is making an investment of more than $8 million and will generate a $31 million annual economic impact to the area, EDC officials said in a statement released Friday.
Another company, dubbed Project AF, would bring 79 new manufacturing jobs to the Myrtle Beach area, EDC’s president and chief executive officer Brad Lofton has said. That project, which has gotten initial approval from the Horry County Council, requires two more votes from the council.
“We are pleased to establish our new production facility and North American headquarters in Horry County,” Mike Phillips, president and chief executive officer of BauschLinnemann North America, said in the news release. “South Carolina has the right business environment for us and has the skilled workforce we need.”
Since January 2011, South Carolina has recruited more than $6.8 billion in capital investment and more than 16,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector, said Rob Godfrey, Gov. Nikki Haley’s spokesman. Manufacturing added 7,400 jobs statewide from June 2011 to June 2012, making it the sector with the largest job growth, according to the latest statistics from the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce.
The BauschLinnemann’s jobs bring EDC’s total jobs announced to 315 for the year, and brings EDC more than half-way toward its goal of luring 500 jobs to Horry County by the fall. The EDC already announced 260 jobs since December from Frontier Communications and AvCraft, an aviation maintenance and repair company in Myrtle Beach.
Lofton, who started in April 2011 as the EDC’s president and chief executive officer, pledged to bring that number of jobs to the area during his first 18 months on the job.
Contact JANELLE FROST at 443-2404.
