PEMBROKE — The president and chief executive officer of a food company said Thursday that his company is locating a processing facility near Pembroke because of the coordinated efforts of local and state officials and agencies involved in industrial recruitment.
“They didn’t seem to be competing forces,” said Jere Null, of Charlotte-headquartered Trinity Frozen Foods. “Everyone seemed to be on the same page.”
Null said that his company had been looking closely at Florence, S.C., but chose the site in Robeson County just outside Pembroke for the facility that will make sweet potato fries. Null said that the 150,000-square-foot processing facility that is being developed in the old Comark building on Deep Branch Road near COMtech should be operating in July. The facility will initially employ 60 and grow to 150 employees within three years.
Salaries will vary, but the total payroll is projected to be more than $34.8 million a year plus benefits.
Null told The Robesonian on Thursday that his company’s initial investment in the facility is $13 million, with investment ultimately to reach $40 million.
The official announcement of Trinity’s arrival in Pembroke was made Thursday by Gov. Pat McCrory at Mariani’s Restaurant. It is welcome news in Robeson County, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state, near 13 percent.
“This is great news,” McCrory said. “You (Trinity) are tapping into a workforce here in Robeson County that is dedicated and will give you 100 percent.”
McCrory said that that Trinity’s plans to produce 12 million to 15 million sweet potato fries annually at its Pembroke facility — eventually increasing production to 50 million pounds annually — is a strong boost to North Carolina’s efforts to increase agribusiness.
“Robeson County could become known as the sweet potato capital of the world,” the governor said.
According to Null, North Carolina grows more sweet potatoes than any other state in the nation. There are now about 2.5 billion pounds being produced each year in the United States, with 40 to 45 percent of the total crop coming from North Carolina, he said.
Null also said that over the past five years sales of sweet potato fries have increased by double digits, a trend he believes will continue. He said sweet potato fries were originally the idea of George Wooten, president of Wayne E. Bailey Produce in Chadbourn and the current chairman of Trinity’s board of directors, who five years ago predicted sweet potato fries would become popular.
“It was George’s vision five years ago that we needed this facility to be built in North Carolina,” Null said.
Wooten believes sweet potato production in Robeson County will increase significantly once Trinity’s plant is available to process the crop.
“There is so much untouched land in Robeson County,” he said. “There is so much potential.”
McCrory and numerous other speakers on Thursday praised the “teamwork” of all the individuals and groups that worked to recruit Trinity to Robeson County. Trinity received $500,000 in a performance-based grant from the One North Carolina Fund, $925,000 from the North Carolina Rural Center and a $1.16 million grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation. The company is also eligible for tax breaks from the county for 10 years..
Greg Cummings, Robeson County’s economic developer, said that serious efforts to bring Trinity Frozen Foods to Robeson County had been ongoing for the past eight months. He thanked all of the officials, agencies and others who had participated in the efforts to recruit the industry.
“It takes all of us to make a project like this happen,” he said. ‘No one individual can do it himself.”
Thursday’s event was attended by local, county and state officials, all pledging to ensure that Trinity’s investment in Robeson County and North Carolina is successful.
“Thank you for believing in Robeson County and making the investment that can grow jobs in our county,” state Sen. Michael Walters said.
Also present with the governor was Sharon Decker, the state Secretary of Commerce, and Steve Troxler, the state Commissioner of Agriculture.
Methinks you jumped too soon. Higher wages are paid to good workers with hard to find skills. While I hope as much as anyone else that this plant will succeed, and provide good jobs for employees, its a two way street my friend. The story I told about the SaraLee plant was true, and the direct behavior of those workers caused the plant to shut down. They copped attitudes and sabotaged the line so that the production didnt justify keeping the plant open. So I guess they got their revenge on the "evil" employer, but the doodoo flew right back in their faces. And I'm sure it didn't taste as good as one of their pies!
Who cares as long as it supplies people with JOBS.
Thank you Gov. McCroy for your vote of confidence
in Robeson County. Thank you Mr. Null for looking beyond the negative views of some who seem to be very narrow minded when it comes to your choice of geographics. Please don't listen to narrow minded people. Fleetwood Homes survived for over thirty years in the western part of the county, until the industry suffered badly when the demand dropped for the product. But SWEET TATER FRIES? Man I plan on growing some myself, just to make sure ther's plenty of work in this part of the world. So, Greg a big Shout out to you too. Can you say Sweet Tater shuffle!! :-)
When I close my eyes, I see a person much like you kissing the hand of our dear leaders.....
Now for my prediction. Write it down somewhere as we will be coming back to review it in about four years. Who remembers the SaraLee plant here in Pembroke? A real live PIE FACTORY. Had a relative that worked there. Want to know what happened to it making it lose? The sorry employees found out if the sabotaged the machines on the lines, they could stand around and get paid for not working. And then there was the theft of product. The plant had to close due to these reasons because it wasn't making money. So, all of these smart azzes lost their jobs. I hope I'm wrong, but the same thing will probably happen with this plant in about three or four years.
You must consider operating cost, water bill, maintenance bill, and all other costs. Your average worker who gets things done and sends the product out the door, $0.00004 per lbs of goods. Your plant manager and all others $1.500 per lbs of goods. The people that do the work are paid the least. Thank you Mr. McRory. All of us are happy that you a so thoughtful.
Also again, no mention of the hourly pay rate means minimum wage. Great, we'll take anything to get people off the dole and back to work.
I propose preferential hiring for people on welfare.