Category Archives: News

Snack food company, Lotus Bakeries, will create 62 new jobs in Alamance County. The company will invest more than $84 million to add a new production facility at its Mebane location. New positions include operators, technicians, and material handlers, with a collective average annual salary of $47,873, exceeding Alamance County’s overall average annual wage of $46,999. The new jobs have the potential to create an annual payroll impact of more than $2.9 million for the region.

This is the company’s second expansion in a year. Lotus Bakeries continues to evolve the product lines of its Biscoff and BEAR brands. With 12 global production plants, the company only produces the Biscoff cookie at its headquarters in Belgium and North Carolina, which opened in 2019. Since opening in Mebane, Lotus has grown its only U.S. manufacturing plant to 237,000 square feet, with this project providing an additional 171,000 to the site, adding two more production lines, warehouse operations, and employee amenities.

“We are thrilled to further expand our manufacturing footprint in North Carolina,” says Margo Joris, General Manager of Lotus Bakeries US. “This expansion project will substantially increase our capacity in our plant in Mebane and we look forward to attract skilled employees to join our exciting journey.”

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North Carolina is one of two states that has received Area Development magazine’s inaugural 2022 Platinum Shovel award which recognizes states that went beyond the gold standard for investment and job creation. The Platinum Shovel award is part of Area Development’s annual celebration of economic development, which also includes the Gold and Silver Shovel awards. North Carolina was previously honored by the magazine, having received Gold Shovel awards in 2018 and 2021 and Silver Shovel awards in 2009, 2011–2017, and 2019–2020.

Area Development magazine presents the Annual Shovel Awards to states in recognition of their state economic development agencies and their achievements in job creation and economic impact through policies and processes that attract and develop new and existing businesses. All 50 states across the country submitted their top ten job creation and investment projects from 2021, which were then scored on the number of high value-added jobs per capita, amount of investment, number of new facilities and industry diversity.

“By virtue of the fact that North Carolina’s 10 submitted projects will be responsible for the creation of more than 9,000 jobs and $6 billion in company investment, the state went beyond the gold standard and is receiving our new Platinum Shovel award,” said Area Development’s Editor Geraldine Gambale.

North Carolina also had two projects recognized as Projects of the Year. Apple’s research and development center in Wake County was recognized as Non-Manufacturing Project of the Year. Toyota’s first North American electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Randolph County won Manufacturing Project of the Year. The project will create 1,750 jobs and invest $1.3 billion.

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The Davie County Economic Development Commission said that there are four new speculative buildings planned for the county’s industrial parks.

The buildings will range from 130,000 to 500,000 square feet in space and are currently in the planning stages or under construction to replace those filled in 2021 or 2022 by Hayward Holdings, Sportsfield Specialties, DFA, Scott Bader and Palltronics.

Two of the speculative buildings will be in the South Point Industrial Park, which is being developed The Hollingsworth Cos. just north of Interstate 40 on U.S. 601. Those buildings are expected to be available by the end of 2022.

Davie Industrial Development LLC is planning a a 500,000-square-foot building in Davie Industrial Center to be available in the first quarter of 2023.

A developer new to Davie County, the Crown Cos. plans to develop up to 2 million square feet of industrial space in its 160-acre industrial park off I-40 at the Farmington Road exit. The company
is in the planning stages of its first 300,000-square-foot building that it projects making available in the second quarter of 2023.

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Thomas Built Buses has announced plans to hire up to 280 employees as it adds a production shift. The shift will be in the manufacturer’s Saf-T-Liner C2 plant, which produces traditional and electric school buses. Thomas Built was founded in High Point in 1916 as a streetcar manufacturer. It began making school buses in 1936. Thomas Built Buses has more than 1,600 employees in the Triad. Thomas Built Buses has plans to hire for multiple positions, including assembly technicians, materials technicians and machine operators.

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The City of High Point plans to purchase a former industrial property and redevelop it into a “small-scale manufacturing” hub for southwest High Point. The City Council has authorized the purchase of 300 Oak St., a former Harriss & Covington hosiery plant and a current furniture showroom, along with a vacant 1.3-acre lot across the street, for $3 million. The city is seeking a federal grant to fund renovations to the property, which is composed of 64,000 sq ft of building space, as part of an $8.5 million project.

The goal is to establish a “small-scale manufacturing” headquarters in southwest High Point that would provide “equitable economic opportunity for residents through entrepreneurship, business scaling and workforce training,” according to the city. The hub would provide programming to help residents, especially minority and women-owned business enterprises and BIPOCs start and grow businesses. The concept is based on a city-led strategy to draw more small businesses that produce things to the old industrial areas that once housed furniture and textile plants in southwest High Point.

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