Golden LEAF, AdvantageWest Partner to Support New Manufacturing Operation
Date Posted: 11/23/2005
AdvantageWest - North Carolina, western North Carolina’s Regional Economic Development public/private partnership, today announced receipt of a $100,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to facilitate the purchase of training equipment to be used by Blue Ridge Community College for a new manufacturing operation in Transylvania County, N.C.
Excelsior Packaging of Yonkers, N.Y., has selected the former Coats American facility in Rosman for a 110-employee, $20 million FDA-approved food, medical and consumer packaging plant. The $100,000 grant from Golden LEAF is part of a competitive recruitment package that included support from The Governor’s One North Carolina Fund, the N.C. Department of Commerce, Transylvania County, Duke Power and PSNC Energy. The company will use polymer-based laminating equipment in a clean room environment, where skilled technicians are expected to earn $15 to $18 per hour plus benefits.
AdvantageWest CEO Dale Carroll praised the company’s decision, noting that the company’s announcement prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday would give many across the region new reason to give thanks. “Transylvania County has lost as many manufacturing jobs over the past decade as nearly any county in the state,” Carroll said. “Local, regional and state leaders should be proud of their efforts that helped make this happen, and workers across the region can be thankful that quality new jobs are on the way,” he said.
AdvantageWest will work with Blue Ridge Community College to acquire and implement the new training equipment and programs. Though the equipment will initially be used to train employees for Excelsior, AdvantageWest, Golden LEAF and Blue Ridge Community College officials are excited about the potential for the new training equipment, which could also train workers at existing operations such as Raflatac and PrintPak, and could help recruit new companies in related industries as well.
The Golden LEAF Foundation was created in 1999 to help North Carolinians make the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy through grants and investments that will positively affect the long-term economic advancement of the state. It gives priority in its grantmaking to tobacco-dependent and economically distressed counties. “We are grateful to the Golden LEAF Foundation for their ongoing support of economic development in western North Carolina,” Carroll said.
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"As a life-long resident of western North Carolina I can’t imagine a more beautiful or diverse place to live and work."
D. Samuel Neill
Attorney-At-Law & AdvantageWest Board Member
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