Caldwell County

5/9/12 – The Builder

lisasims — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:29:27 +0000

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May 9, 2012

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Paul Broyhill still working to keep furniture alive in North Carolina.

Though he’s been retired for nearly 30 years, Paul Broyhill still wields considerable influence in the world of furniture manufacturing.

Broyhill, 88, was instrumental in the decision by Ashley Furniture to build a new manufacturing and distribution center in Davie County after choosing that site over existing facilities in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California and Mississippi and other sites in the southeastern United States. The facility will bring 550 manufacturing jobs to the state within five years with that figure rising to as many as 1,100. The announcement of that decision was made just as the High Point furniture market was beginning.

During his speech at the announcement, Dale Carroll, deputy secretary for the NC Department of Commerce talked about the role the industry played in shaping the state and how the Ashley plant helps continue the tradition.

“That speaks volumes about this region, about our heritage in furniture manufacturing.” Caroll said. A large part of that heritage is one Mr. Paul H. Broyhill and the Broyhill family.

Furniture is in his family’s blood and has been since 1905 when James Thomas Broyhill invested in a furniture company, and his younger brother came into the fold after serving in World War I. In 1926, J.E. Broyhill parted ways with his older brother and bought the struggling Lenoir Chair Company. During the 1930′s and early 1940′s, J.E. Broyhill bought five other floundering factories and began laying the foundation for a future industry powerhouse. After serving in World War II and graduating from the University of North Carolina, Paul Broyhill went to work for his father in 1948.

“I guess I was sort of raised to be what I turned out to be,” he said in a 2007 interview with industry publication Furniture Today. “Going into the furniture business was just expected.”

His ascension to the top of the company sparked a transformation for the industry. Broyhill took the reins of his father’s company in the early 1960′s and held them until his retirement in 1985. In that time, Broyhill Furniture Industry sales soared from $10 million to $325 million, and employment blossomed to 7,500 employees.

As the company grew exponentially, Paul Broyhill invested in 6 million square feet of modern manufacturing facilities, which became the marvel of the industry. When Furniture Brands International bought Broyhill Furniture Industries in 1980, the family business was, at the time, the largest privately owned furniture maker in the world.

With those credentials and his pedigree, it’s no wonder people in the furniture industry still listen when he has something to say. “I’m friends of Todd Wanek, president of Ashley Furniture, and he told me he was looking for a location, so naturally, I’m trying to bring him to North Carolina – and Western North Carolina,” Broyhill said. “He looked at any number of sites, including some Broyhill facilities in Rutherfordton. He went down and saw this R.J. Reynolds site outside of Winston-Salem in this little town called Advance and sort of fell in love with that. It is a nice site.

“He wanted me to be there personally when he made the announcement and, of all things, gave me credit for influencing him to come to North Carolina, and we got him pretty close to our area. I think he will reach out to Salisbury, Lexington. Mt. Airy was a furniture town, Lexington was a furniture town, Thomasville was a furniture town, so there is some furniture tradition in that general area. I think he would have been a lot better off in Lenoir. I contacted Furniture Brands to see if they would sell him the whole Broyhill complex, but they turned that down.”

Broyhill said he’s encouraged to see some renewal of furniture manufacturing in North Carolina, but he added that he doesn’t think it’ll return to the heights of the 1990′s before globalization and outsourcing took a severe toll on the industry, its workers and the local economies. He said there’s still one Broyhill wood factory operating in Caldwell County that’s surviving on government contracts, which require that items bought are made in the United States, and he hopes that helps keep the factory going. He also feels like he could have made a difference if he’d stayed around just a while longer instead of retiring at the end of 1985.

“I think if I could’ve been there, maybe I could have stemmed this tide of (the factories) going and kept a nucleus of an organization,” he said. “These absentee owners don’t seem to have any concept of what it takes to run a furniture company, and they don’t realize the value of these organizations. It took my father and me years and years to build an organization, and they think nothing about just doing away with it. A lot of the value is in the people, but somehow they don’t recognize that. All those wonderful people are mostly all gone. We had 7,500 employees when I left, and that very organization and those plants with very little change over the next ten years doubled – and the profits far more than doubled. The business was very successful all the way up to 2000, and it was about that time it started diminishing. Over that 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, they just devastated the business.”

Broyhill wrote in his 2010 memoir, “This is Broyhill” that the boom of the 1990′s led to $700 million in sales with essentially the organization he had in place when he stepped down after a falling out with the new parent company, then called Interco, over the company’s decision to make cuts in its contribution to the profit-sharing plan he implemented for his employees, more than 200 of whom returned to honor the man at a recent Broyhill reunion at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro. Though he stepped away out of principle, he expresses pang of regret in his memoir about missing the later success of the company and of the dismantling of what his family had worked to achieve.

“Maybe I sold out too early,” he wrote. “I wish I’d had that peak experience. It saddens me that today, the factories are almost all closed and many fine people have become displaced. My dad and I built for 68 years, and it’s nearly all gone.”

Broyhill said he’d offered his expertise and advice to the management of Furniture Brands after his retirement, offers that fell on deaf ears. He points to a book written by Lenoir-Rhyne College professor Mike Dugan called “The Furniture Wars” that outlines the missteps and failings of the global conglomerates that took over the industry. Chief among them was th failure to listen to longtime insiders and to consolidate decision-making at the top. In his own book, Broyhill wrote of those issues by using one of his father’s expressions – breaking down the rock.

“A large rock is too big to handle,” he wrote. “By breaking it into smaller bits, it becomes unusable. It’s unfortunate that acquiring companies failed to learn that lesson.”

While the industry remains in decline in the United States, Broyhill sees the small, independent manufacturers as the lifeline that could keep the tradition and heritage of furniture making alive not only in North Carolina but in our part of the state, as well. He points to the success of McCreary Modern, which is based in Catawba County and has a plant in Gamewell, and Lincolnton Furniture, owned by Bruce Cochrane, as organizations that could carry that torch into the future. Cochrane’s plan, according to a July 22, 2011, story in Furniture Today, is to keep overhead low so his company can offer a quality product at a competitive price. If the small companies like Bob McCreary’s among others, and start-ups like Cochrane’s can make it work, Broyhill believes that could be a good omen for the industry.

“I think you can watch him and watch Vaughan-Bassett, and that’ll give you some indication of whether it can be done or not,” he said. “You have to admire someone like Bob McCreary and how successful he’s been. I know several independent furniture companies of his type who are doing fine. “You just have to admire someone like that who was very small 25 years ago, but he’s gradually built it to where he has a very successful business – and Rick Coffey (president and chief operating officer of McCreary Modern) should have his share of the credit.”

Broyhill says the small companies are making their mark on the upholstery side of the business, which has, for the most part, avoided the reach of the conglomerates that have taken over the industry. While there is a good bit of imported fabric on the market, U.S. made upholstery has helped the family-owned businesses survive even if they’re becoming an endangered species, so to speak. These companies are fun by furniture people, by furniture families,” he said. “Unfortunately, most of these big absentee owners have gotten rid of the furniture families, and there’s hardly any of them left except in the upholstery business. Now the whole world is into importing. You get somebody who has a warehouse and goes to China and starts importing, and that’s all it takes to be in the furniture business. Back in the old days, you had to have a factory and an organization. Today, you just have to have the ability to import.”

When asked about what he would like his legacy to be, Broyhill pointed to his memoir. In the prologue, he outlines quite clearly how he wants to be remembered. “The Builder” is what I want as my epitaph,” he wrote, and build he did. He built an industry giant that grew into 18 different plants and had its own trucking division. He built a household name brand thanks to exposure on national television. “The Price is Right” game show in particular. More than anything, he continues to build the tradition of furniture manufacturing in this state even if the peak has passed. There’s still value in the Broyhill brand, and he is proud of the prestige the company’s name still holds even if it’s not owned by his family. That prestige also carries over to the man himself, which is eveident in the clout he continues to carry in the industry.

“It’s interesting that our name is still very well known, and wherever I go, I seem to be recognized,” he said. “That certainly is gratification.”

by John Josey jjosey@newstopic.net

4/27/12 – Bemis Acquires New Molding System

lisasims — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:17:04 +0000

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April 27, 2012

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Lenoir-based Bemis Custom Plastics, the advanced technology group of Bemis Manufacturinhg Company, has announced the acquisition of a 3,000-ton plastic injection molding system, the Maxima MG 3000, from Milacron Plastics Technologies.

Bemis Customs Plastics designs, engineers and produces plastic parts for a wide variety of industries. Despite its massive size, the new Maxima MG 3000 uses 10-20 percent less floor space than comparable machines. This efficient use of floor space will enable Bemis to add additional machines when needed.

“The Maxima MG 3000 gives us the ability to produce parts to our exact production requirements,” said Rick Martin, the company’s Southeast manager for market and business development. “This enables us to opitimize our process for the highest part productivity, quality and accuracy.”

The Maxima MG 3000 is an injection moding machine that will give Bemis Custom Plastics the ability to form larger and more precise custom plastics parts for business and industrial markets including the automotive, housewares, appliance, storage and transport containment, furniture and construction industries. The Maxima MG 3000 provides greater speed, precision, capacity and repeatable performance for years of demanding production. The Maxima MG 3000 is flexible to adapt to additional product lines and evolving conditions.

Martin said the new equipment arrived in two different sections that were put together. “It will help us be more competitive in the manufacturing environment.”

Bemis is located at 201 Industrial Court off Morganton Boulevard. The site employs approximately 200 individuals. Its parenting company, Bemis Manufacturing Company, makes custom OEM plastic parts for commercial, medical and industrial markets worldwide. Employing 1,600 people in six countries, the company makes and markets products under its own brands, as well as producing private-label products and component parts for a variety of industries.

News-Topic News Editor Paul Teague contributed to this report.

4/20/12 – Quest For Hire

lisasims — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 15:46:34 +0000

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April 20, 2012

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Event draws 1,800 job hunters to Civic Center.

Some lined up in the pre-dawn hours. Others walked more than a half mile to reach the entrance. But all came for one purpose – to get back on the employment track.

With an estimated 1,800 people in attendance, Thursday’s “Caldwell Is Hiring” event at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir blew away all expectations.

With the number of available jobs surging to 700 in recent days, a palpable optimism existed among the crowd. And while few, if any, people were hired on the spot, the door to future employment appeared to be opening a bit wider.

“Everyone is so pleased and impressed at the preparation that has been done since the last one,” Caldwell County Economic Development Commission Vice Chairman, William Howard, said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but there have been tremendous strides made in the last six months.”

Howard said he was encouraged to learn that 225 individuals had completed a job-seeking tutorial offered through the local Division of Employment Security, Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute and JobLink. Those who completed the two-day course received a direct pass to meet with employers, instead of going through an orientation process.

Lenoir resident Tommy Pritchard, a recently laid off safety director for a trucking company, was one of the many who made a long walk along U.S. 321 to get to the event. But he felt the effort was worth it, particularly after meeting with representatives of Niyato, an automotive conversion company, and Randall Miller Company, a transportation firm that is moving its operation from Boone to Lenoir.

“I haven’t been able to work in Caldwell County for the past 15 years,” said Pritchard, who had been employed for a trucking firm in Burke County before being shuffled out after a merger more than two months ago. “They had this very well orchestrated,” he said.

For Glecy Bevela of Lenoir, the time was right to begin getting back into the workforce. With her children now in school, Bevela spoke with Avery Dennision Administrative Assistant, Kelly Hamel. “I’m looking around,” Bevela said.

Also on the hunt was John Stanley, who recently moved from Drexel to Lenoir. Noting that opportunities in Burke County have “dried up,” Stanley met with Bemis Human Resources Executive Crystal Chester.

The session, which extended well past the three hours that had been planned, attracted nearly two dozen companies, primarily all of them located in Caldwell County.

Deborah Murray, executive director of the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission, said she was pleased with the blend of employers. Of particular note, she said, was the fact that half the companies were new to the area, while another half represented exisiting operations that have announced expansions.

All while the exisiting businesses attracted more than their share of attention, long lines revealed the interest for new operations – such as Carolina Prime Pet, which is transferring its dog treat manufacturing business from Murphy to Lenoir.

Started two years ago at the peak of Caldwell County’s unemployment doldrums, the hiring events have attracted larger crowds and more employers with every new session. In fact, Thursday’s session more than doubled the number in attendance for the event last Fall.

4/17/12 – Revving The Engine

lisasims — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:33:58 +0000

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April 17, 2012

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Board approves up to $1.2M for Niyato.

Six hundred. As in jobs.

In a jolt to Caldwell County’s desperate employment situation, the Caldwell County Board of Commissioners approved an economic incentive grant worth up to $1.2 million for automotive conversion company, Niyato, during its meeting Monday night at the West Caldwell High School theater.

As announced in the News-Topic earlier this month, Niyato intends to locate a temporary site and later build a permanent facility in Caldwell County, hiring up to 600 people in the first year. The county’s incentive equates to $2,000 per job and will be paid as the jobs are created, verified and maintained for at least one year.

According to company officials, 300 people are expected to be hired as early as July. Niyato also will have a presence at Thursday’s “Caldwell is Hiring” event that is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir.

Caldwell County Economic Development Commission Executive Director, Deborah Murray, addressed the commissioners and said the company will be making 250 vehicles per month once production gets under way.

According to Niyato Chief Marketing Officer, Jim Gaiser, the company first will begin converting over Ford vehicles to compressed natural gas before adding electric conversions by the end of the year.

The four commissioners in attendance (Commissioner Mike LaBrose was absent) were impressed by the report and approved the incentive request unanimously. The county has been seeking a large manufacturing employer to step in and ease the pain of thousands of furniture and textile jobs that have evaporated in the past decade. In fact, Caldwell County’s unemployment rate has been in double digits since the end of 2008 and remains above 12.5 percent, according to recent data.

“This could be the potential for something we don’t even realize today,” Commissioner Rob Bratcher said.

Meanwhile, the board also approved two other economic incentive requests, including one for Grante Falls-based Carolina Classic Furniture. Murray said the company is seeking to expand its operation and add eight jobs. The incentive funds, which would be paid out through the county’s sales tax re-investment program would total $16,000.

In the other request, Lenoir-based Avery Dennision received approval for up to $80,000 in incentive funding, based on the creation of 40 new jobs. The company currently maintains a workforce of more than 250.

According to the company representative, Avery Dennision is adding a new product line and intends to reach out to new market ideas.

4/12/12 – Board Encouraged By Job News

lisasims — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:01:17 +0000

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April 12, 2012

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Bolstered by recent improvements in employment fundamentals, the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission has high hopes for the upcoming “Caldwell Is Hiring” event next week.

According to Dawn Boyer, manager of the Lenoir Division of Employment Sercuity office, the number of people rejoining the workforce surged in January and February. At the same time, employment exceeded the workforce growth, allowing the unemployment rate to drop to 13 percent.

Looking at the numbers, the county’s workforce has gone from 35,600 in December to 39,000 in February. Along the way, employment increased from 30,935 to more than 34,000. “That’s a very, very good sign,” Boyer said.

And while the unemployment rate remains high at 12.7 percent, EDC officials are encouraged about the hiring event set for Thursday, April 19 at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center from 9:00am to noon.

“We are very excited about the ‘Caldwell Is Hiring,” EDC Board Vice Chairman William Howard said. “Part of what we are about is putting people back to work.”

Howard said the session already has attracted a dozen employers, and the number of available jobs willl be an all-time high for the event. Notable employers will include new companies such as Carolina Prime Pet and Lubrimetal.

EDC Executive Director, Deborah Murray, said the event will feature good opportunities. “This will be some cream-of-the-crop jobs,” she said.

Added Howard, “This is truly shaping up to be a huge day for many folks, we hope.”

Turning to marketing, Murray discussed a free video offer through a national county association. According to Murray, the EDC can formulate a series of videos that will spotlight aspects of Caldwell County and will be posted on the EDC’s website. “We can do anything we want to do basically,” Murray said.

4/10/12 – Caldwell Is Hiring Event Scheduled For April 19th

lisasims — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:24:35 +0000

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April 10, 2012

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Matching People To Jobs.

CALDWELL IS HIRING

Employment Event

Thursday, April 19, 2012

9:00 am to 12:00 pm

J. E. Broyhill Civic Center

Meet and talk with local employers. Explore current job openings.

Sponsored by: Caldwell County EDC, Caldwell Community College, Caldwell County JobLink & Career Center

4/5/12 – EDC: Community Is Critical In Recruitment

lisasims — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:18:09 +0000

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April 5, 2012

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By Deborah Murray, Caldwell EDC Director

The Caldwell County Economic Development Commission’s mission is to attract and retain business and industry in Caldwell County which will result in increased investment and greater opportunity for Caldwell County. More simply put, recruitment and retention (hopefully) equal jobs.

Current recruitment efforts are focused on four areas: existing businesses and companies who do business with them; economic developers with active clients; and targeted industries that would complement or diversify our economic base.

Each of these categories bring prospective business in a different way, but once identified, the Caldwell County process begins. Caldwell County has begun to successfully differentiate itself from other areas with its recruitment process. We believe in the cumulative resources and assets of the community partners so much that we bring them around the table very early in our relationship building with prospective clients. The message and the commitment of the community partners is so strong and compelling that it truly enhances our ability to compete for new business. We are told time and again, by large and small business, local, national and international, that the community presentation often seals the deal.

Most recently, the Italian company, Lubrimetal, stated at a press conference that the genuine interest displayed at the community presentation significantly determined their level of interest in Granite Falls over all the other options they were considering across seven different states. The details of every deal are very different and always complicated, but the continuing thread through it all is the community participation.

The Caldwell County greater community can be a big help in the recruitment process as well. As we see the number of prospects increase as the economy begins to recover and as we do a better job of attracting prospects, be mindful that there is a steady stream of potential prospects traveling through the County every day and each encounter is an opportunity to be an ambassador for Caldwell County. Visitors do business along 321 and Hwy. 18, they eat in our favorite restaurants and they visit family, friends and business partners each day. These are our prospects, too.

Imagine the increased positive impression we might create if every encounter were a Chamber of Commerce encounter, an indeliable positive, first impression.

3/29/12 – It’s Electric! County Lands Car Conversion Operation

lisasims — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:15:41 +0000

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March 29, 2012

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Niyato Industries, a company that intends to convert gasoline sedans to electric power, plans to hire hundreds of people.

Welcome to the wave of the future, Caldwell County. In an official announcement Wednesday evening, Las Vegas-based Niyato Industries said it will be bringing its electric car conversion operation to the county, offering potentially hundreds of high paying jobs.

The company, which already provides electric drive trains for Ford, intends to convert 2,700 vehicles this year, according to the company’s website. The site, www.niyato.com, also displays a sample sedan that will be marketed for less than $40,000 after a federal tax credit.

The company anticipates creating 50 new jobs throughout May and June of 2012, with a first year employment of 200 workers per eight hour shift. Niyato also plans to add second and third shifts of 150 to 200 employees each. Total new job production could be 600 new workers in the initial years of production.

Niyato will be manufacturing eco-friendly alternative fuel and electric powered sedans and SUV’s at the newly announced Caldwell County facility.

According to Niyato Chief Operating Officer, Kathi Hanley, the company will benefit Americans in several ways. “We at Niyato Industries are all Americans and we have created Niyato Industries to put Americans back to work and be the first to mass produce an electric vehicle,” Hanley said.

Niyato’s vehicles will reduce the carbon emissions in the United States and help the government achieve its mandate to convert government fleets to alternative fuels by 2015.

Christopher Petrella, site consultant for Niyato Industries, has been instrumental in selecting Caldwell County. A current political candidate, Petrella made the announcement at a forum Tuesday in Morganton. He said the company will offer jobs paying from $19 to $35 per hour, according to published reports.

For the county, the announcement is a major victory in developing manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the past decade. Caldwell, like many western NC counties, has struggled with the loss of manufacturing, particularly furniture and textiles, to the extent that its unemployment rate has hovered above the 13 percent mark for well beyond a year.

The Niyato win for the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission comes on the heels of similar manufacturing announcements by Carolina Prime Pet and Lubrimetal already this year.

Caldwell County EDC Executive Director, Deborah Murray, said the exact site locations are yet to be announced for the manufacturing facility. At the same time, she expressed her pleasure with Niyato’s decision.

“We are very excited about the potential of this new company,” Murray said. “The selection of Caldwell County is one more industrial success story as we establish a world-class, global economy.”

Niyato will begin hiring at the Caldwell County EDC’s “Caldwell Is Hiring” event on April 19th at the J.E. Broyhill Civic Center in Lenoir. The event will be held from 9:00am until Noon.

3/20/12 – EDC Chief Gives Update On Progress

lisasims — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:33:33 +0000

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March 20, 2012

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With winter having faded into an early spring, the Caldwell County Economic Development Commission is looking to continue its spate of potential prospects.

During Monday night’s Caldwell County Board of Commissioners meeting at the City-County Chambers in Lenoir, Caldwell County EDC Executive Director, Deborah Murray, presented an update on previous and current activities.

“The EDC continues to see growth,” Murray said, noting that the agency received nine new leads in January and another thirteen in February. “We believe a greater number of folks are looking.”

Murray touted the Hickory-Morganton-Lenoir metro region for its recent mention by Site Selection magazine as one of the top-10 regions of similar size for economic development announcements in 2011. She added that Caldwell County already has announced two significant projects this year, with another two potentially on the horizon.

“We are anticipating a strong and productive spring and summer as well,” Murray said.

Also contained in the report was an update on EDC projects that have met their targets, along with others seeking to meet job-development criteria. Of the five companies that have satisfied their requirements, Murray said all met or exceeded their employment targets. Murray also spotlighted four new projects that have been approved to receive cash incentives for job creation through the county’s sales tax reinvestment fund.

Commissioner Rob Bratcher said the report is indicitive that the EDC is pushing forward.

“The EDC really is the face, the voice of Caldwell County,” Bratcher said. “And the EDC is better prepared today than they have ever been.”

3/7/12 – NC Is #1 For 2011 New & Expansion Projects In South Atlantic Region

lisasims — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:30:09 +0000

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March 7, 2012

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Site Selection magazine released its rankings on new and expanded project activity for 2011. North Carolina moved up two spots this year, capturing fourth place nationally and number one in the South Atlantic region. North Carolina logged 310 qualifying projects during 2011, which was a 38% increase over 2010.

http://www.thrivenc.com/newsandevents/north-carolina-no-1-2011-new-and-expansion-projects-south-atlantic-region