The announcement that the company has chosen a 10-acre site in Broadpointe Industrial Park for its U.S. headquarters and production facility comes a month after county and town leaders offered Raumedic up to $817,802 in incentives. Salaries at the new plant will vary by job, but state officials said they will average $55,419 annually. That‘s more than $20,000 above the $34,256 average annual salary for Henderson County, according to Gov. Pat McCrory‘s press office.
Headquartered in Helmbrechts, Germany, Raumedic manufactures polymer components (from thermoplastics and silicon rubber) used in the medical and pharmaceutical industry, including high-tech catheters, drug delivery systems and moulded parts for surgical devices.
Raumedic has a staff of roughly 580 employees and generated sales of more than $100 million in 2012, according to the industry journal Plastics Today. Two years ago, the company invested $32 million in a new Bavarian facility, spawning 190 new jobs there. CEO Martin Bayer said Henderson County offered a skilled workforce and „the ideal business environment“ for his company‘s investment. „We really fell in the love with the area and were convinced that the community partners that we met could deliver on our schedule for new construction and operation,“ Bayer said in a news release.
The company originally was looking for a 60,000-square-foot building in which to locate its production facility. But with the area‘s improving economic health, no such structure was available, according to the HCPED. So the search shifted to a 10- to 15-acre site, and after weighing the county‘s offerings against those from two other non-neighboring states, Raumedic chose a 10-acre site in Broadpointe Industrial Park adjacent to metals fabricator Prince Manufacturing.
At least $10.6 million of the $27.1 million facility is slated for a state-of-the-art „clean room“ for the production of sterile medical devices. Such controlled environments typically limit bio-contamination through the use of airlocks, specialized garments and HEPA air filters, among other features.
In addition to the local incentives, the state‘s One NC Fund provided Raumedic with a performance-based grant of up to $500,000. As with the local grants, companies receive no money up front and must meet job creation and investment thresholds to qualify for reimbursements.
Raumedic AG plans to create 138 new jobs over the next five years, according Gov. McCrory‘s press office. The additional 34 jobs will be posted in subsequent years, Tate said. „Raumedic represents the aligning of of two target clusters, both plastics and medical devices, in addition to joining other successful German-headquartered manufacturing operations in Henderson County,“ said Dave Modaff, chairman of HCPED‘s board. The Bavarian company joins other German-based manufacturers locally such as Elkamet, Borgwarner, Continental and Putsch.
(dw)
