41 manufacturing jobs coming soon to Horry County, tripling company’s workforce
By the start of 2022, local office cubicle and furniture maker Skutchi Designs, Inc. will be ready to hire for 41 new production and sales jobs at a new Horry County facility.
The manufacturing company, along with Gov. Henry McMaster, announced Tuesday morning that it would expand in the soon-to-be-built Ascott Valley industrial park, located along Adrian Highway, near the intersection of Highways 701 and 22.
The move will be a major expansion for the company, allowing it to more than triple the number of people it employs, from 17 currently to 58 once it hires for the 41 new jobs. Coming with a $3.5 million investment, Skutchi Designs Vice President Joe Ferraro said, pending local building permits, the company hopes to start construction on a new warehouse in the Ascott Valley industrial park by March or April, and finish by the end of 2021. The new facility will be a “huge warehouse” where the company will make new cubicle walls, store its wares and conduct sale operations, Ferraro said.
Owned and operated by the wife and husband team of Jamie and Joe Ferraro, Skutchi Designs opened originally in 2005 in Long Island before moving to its current location along Gardner Lacy Road in 2012. The expansion was a long time coming, Joe Ferraro said. Their business had been growing for several years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and viewed Ascott Valley as a “fast tracked” way to expand, he said.
“Horry County has made it easy to operate our business and proven that it wants us as part of the community. We look forward to growing our company and much more success in Horry County,” Jamie Ferraro said in the statement. “It is a great place to live, work and play.”
It may seem odd that an office furniture company is expanding its business in the middle of a pandemic that has ravaged the U.S. economy, but Ferraro said Skutchi Designs had been growing “exponentially” since moving to the area. The company took a small hit from the pandemic back in March and April, Ferraro said, but bounced back quickly. That’s due in part because the company makes sneeze guards, Ferraro said, plus, companies that want or need to operate in-person have a need for higher cubicle walls to keep employees separated from each other.
“We have a bunch of different products that help in this COVID-19 era,” Ferraro said. “We’ll put an extender on top of anyone’s cubicles.”
Skutchi Design’s announcement is also big news for the years-in-the-making Ascott Valley project. The project cleared an important hurdle earlier this month when Horry County, in concert with the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation, secured needed funding for a master plan of the site, located between Conway and Loris. In December, the county will select a construction company to build roads and other needed infrastructure on the site so that the private companies, like Skutchi Designs, can purchase their parcel of land and begin building their facilities.
Skutchi Designs is the second major manufacturing company to announce an expansion into the Ascott Valley industrial park. It follows a 2018 announcement from B&B Crane Service, a North Carolina-based crane, rigging and industrial company, that that company would bring 48 new jobs to the industrial park.
“We’ve been waiting for this to happen for so long,” said Sandy Davis, the President and CEO of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation. “I’m ready for it all to come together so we can move forward and create some jobs.”
In total, the Ascott Valley industrial park will be anchored by three manufacturing companies, B&B Crane, Skutchi Designs and one other company that hasn’t been announced yet. That third company is expected to bring around 100 new jobs to the county, for a total of around 200 for the industrial park, Davis said earlier this month.
Davis also said that the MBREDC is hoping to have all of those new jobs pay at least $16 per hour and offer health and retirement benefits to workers. The jobs will be advertised on the SC Works site once the companies are ready to hire.
Skutchi Designs supplies cubicles and other office furniture to major companies and universities around the country, including Hershey’s, Pfizer, John Deere, Microsoft, and the University of Maryland. Ferraro said his skills with online marketing and advertising allowed he and his wife, Jamie Ferraro, who owns the company, to move their base of operation out of New York, where they felt the taxes on their business were too high, and to Horry County.
“It’s huge for us because there’s a huge demand for our products,” Ferraro said, adding that the expansion was a needed step for the business. “It’s big in the sense of adding more jobs but not a big step for us because we knew this was coming. We look at it as a breath of fresh air because we need the space.”
Tuesday’s announcement drew praise from local and state politicians, including McMaster.
“It’s always a great day when we can celebrate the expansion of one of our South Carolina companies,” McMaster said in a statement. “Skutchi Designs, Inc.’s decision to expand its Palmetto State operations is a win for the company and for our entire state, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact these 41 new jobs will have in Horry County.”
Horry County Council Chairman Johnny Gardner called the expansion a “success” for the county.
“Having an existing company expand its operations in our county proves that we have a friendly business environment, great workforce, wonderful community and successful businesses,” he said in a statement. “We are honored and proud to have Skutchi Designs, Inc. expand and celebrate their success.”