Bike maker to expand to Conway, hire nearly 50 workers

A 117-year-old New York bicycle manufacturer announced Wednesday that the company will expand to Horry County and hire nearly 50 workers.

Worksman Cycles, which makes bikes and industrial tricycles, is renovating a 100,000-square-foot building just north of Conway on Bulk Plant Road.

Company President Wayne Sosin said he expects to begin hiring employees later this year and will start ramping up his workforce next year. Average pay for the jobs is $15 per hour.

“It’s going to be a slow roll out, but we plan on having some operations up and running first quarter of 2016,” he said. “And we hope it’ll be a full-fledged operation by the third quarter of 2016.”

Worksman has occupied its Queens factory since 1979, but the company dates back to 1898 when it began in the back of a lower Manhattan retail store. The founder, Morris Worksman, built specialty bicycles and tricycles for New York City merchants who were seeking an alternative to horse and buggy transportation.

“We’ve always recognized that bicycles and tricycles can be used for business applications, not just for recreation,” Sosin said. “An industrial tricycle is an adult vehicle that is capable of hauling heavy people and heavy loads in factories, college campuses, oil refineries, chemical plants. Where there’s a need for personnel movement, currently a lot of these facilities use golf carts or motorized vehicles or their employees walk from task to task. So instead of that, Worksman tricycles are a good, green way to do it.”

Sosin, who has been with the company since 1979, bought Worksman in 1987 with a partner, whose father-in-law sold them the firm.

Although business has been good, Sosin said the manufacturer needs to expand and there’s no room at the New York facility.

“We’ve used every square inch,” he said. “We’ve really run out of space.”

Sosin found the cost of New York real estate too high, so he began looking outside the area for a second location. He knew about Myrtle Beach from golf vacations he’d taken there, and South Carolina was among the states Worksman leaders visited.

“The choice of Horry County was easy, as it stood head and shoulders above every other location we visited,” Sosin said. “It was the friendly business environment of South Carolina with its great access to sea, rail and highway transportation as well as low-cost energy, and the climate which will ease the strain that Northeast winters placed on our operation. ... And finally the quality of life for our workers with affordable housing options, low cost of living and good schools.”

Another selling point was the area’s proximity to some of Worksman’s major customers, including Wal-Mart, Ford, Exxon, Michelin, GE, Home Depot and Boeing. Company officials project they will be able to ship and process orders much faster from the Conway area factory.

For local leaders, the Worksman decision is beneficial, too.

“This is a true manufacturing operation,” said Fred Richardson, chairman of the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. (EDC). “It’s a company that has been in business for a very long time. They have business to business relationships with Fortune 500 and Dow 30 companies.”

EDC leaders began recruiting Worksman about a year ago and on Wednesday they celebrated the announcement, hailing it as a sign of the industry recruitment agency’s success.

Worksman is the third company to announce a move to Horry County this year. Combined, the three businesses will eventually account for 120 jobs, officials said.

“Worksman Cycles will be a great addition to the manufacturing industry in the community, and we are proud that they have selected Horry County to expand their business,” Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said.

Sosin agreed that the EDC was instrumental in the company’s decision.

“Everybody's been very welcoming,” he said.

He added that the financial incentives offered to the company were helpful, too.

“We were very open-minded,” he said of the search for a new location. “We visited about seven different states and found that South Carolina offered a lot of business-friendly incentives to come move there.”

Horry County Government spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said a contract between the county and Worksman has not been signed, but the company is expected to receive $122,500 paid in five installments. She said the money will be used to pay for moving equipment to the Conway area site, the facility itself and other expenses, such as furniture, computers and desks. The funding is contingent on the company investing $2.5 million in the project within five years and hiring 49 workers making an average hourly wage of $15.

The company must maintain the investment through Aug. 31, 2022.

Charles D. Perry: 843-626-0218, @TSN_CharlesPerr

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Bike maker to expand to Conway, hire nearly 50 workers."