Business Finds Florence Strong Place to Take Root
Published Apr 17, 2008
Assistant Vice President Jeff Helton (left) and Senior Vice President Brian Newman take a hands-on approach to one of the Honda models fresh from the assembly line.
A stable workforce, transportation accessibility and economic development incentives are always effective lures for new businesses. Combine those elements with Southern hospitality and the result is Florence County.
Its charms have not gone unnoticed. A wide variety of companies have located within the county’s borders, and they are adding employees and facilities at a pace that bodes well for the future.
DuPont Teijin Films is a case in point. The Florence operation of the global producer of polyester films such as Cronar, Melinex and Mylar has been working on plant upgrades for a couple of years, enhancing competitiveness, says Robby Redfearn, plant manager.
“The plant has achieved some milestones in the last year or two, including a safety performance that is better now than it has been in the 47-year history of the plant,” Redfearn says. “We’ve also stabilized our cost base.”
DuPont continues to improve its ability to recycle raw materials, reducing the need for virgin material to manufacture films, and to increase quality control.
“We have extremely reliable products here, and our quality performance is exceptional,” he says. “We’re one of the best plants DuPont has in the country.”
Everybody Into the Poole
Even when one company finds it necessary to suspend operations here, another one seems to be waiting in the wings.
For example, Greenville, S.C.-based David C. Poole Co., a distributor of synthetic staple fibers, purchased the Wellstrand division of Wellman Inc. in May 2007 and is in the process of getting the Johnsonville operation back up and running, says Bynum Poole, vice president.
“We saw a niche spot in the market that would justify our purchasing that line, because it’s an area of fibers we don’t see being affected by imports,” Poole says. “The labor was here, and they needed jobs.”
The company currently has about 20 employees at the plant and will be expanding over time. “We’ve got some ideas for growth in this area,” Poole says. “We don’t have anything specific right now, but we bought a facility that is ready for and capable of future expansion.”
At Honda, Vroom Goes on Honda of South Carolina Mfg. Inc., the largest industrial/manufacturing employer in Florence County, observed its 10th anniversary here in 2007. The company is looking back on the decade with satisfaction, in large part thanks to its employees, says Jeff Helton, assistant vice president of support services.
“The Pee Dee area has been great for us,” he says. “We’ve got about 1,800 associates, and we couldn’t be more pleased with our workforce.”
The plant makes nine models of all-terrain vehicles and several different watercraft at its 600-acre site just off Interstate 95 in Timmonsville, and it can alter production on individual lines based on consumer demand. This helps keep the employee numbers stable, Helton says.
“We’ve got a lot of flexibility here, so we keep an eye on inventory and just see what happens,” he says.
Welding and Record-Keeping
Things are also busy at ESAB Welding & Cutting Products at its facility just north of the Honda plant. The company, currently with about 800 employees, continues to add to its workforce at a rapid pace, says Jill Heiden, senior vice president of human resources for ESAB’s North American Group.
“We’re hiring like crazy,” Heiden says. “We probably have more than 70 people to hire for ESAB North America [in the second half of 2007], and we’re continually growing. We’ve got more than 100 temps right now.”
The company has teamed with Florence-Darlington Technical College for employee training.
In spring 2007, Washington Mutual leased space in the former Maytag facility in Florence and opened a record-keeping center in the building several months later.
According to spokesperson Lisa Friedman, the financial institution expects to have between 80 and 90 people on staff there by the end of 2007 – just one more plus for the county’s vibrant economy.
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Ian Curcio
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