Electrolux receives $300,000 in state, county grants

Donna Phillips of the North Carolina Dept. of Commerce reaches for a handshake with Kevin Dexter, vice president and general manager of Dishcare during the presentation of a $200 thousand check, part of an $18 million incentive agreement.

September 25, 2007
David Anderson Staff Writer

Good news continues to come out of Kinston’s industrial sector.

One week after heating parts manufacturer Field Controls LLC announced a 35-job expansion at its local facility, state and local leaders gathered at Electrolux’s U.S.70 facility on Tuesday to celebrate the reception of two major grants from the state and Lenoir County.

A.B. Electrolux, an international appliance manufacturing firm based in Sweden, employs about 1,000 full-time and temporary workers at its Kinston dishwasher plant.

Company officials entered into an agreement with the county and the state in 2005 to in-vest $18 million in new production lines and create 97 new positions for those lines.

Two years later, Electrolux has exceeded expectations and committed to a $21 million in-vestment, with about 120 new jobs, said Kevin Dexter, vice president and general manager of the company’s dish care division.

Dexter traveled with Product Line Director Chris Harris, a Kinston native, from Elec-trolux’s North American headquarters in Augusta, Ga., for the ceremony.

Dexter and Harris received two oversized checks, one for a $100,000 county grant and one for a $200,000 grant from the governor’s One North Carolina Fund.

Lenoir County Economic Development Director Mark Pope and Donna Phillips of the N.C. Commerce Department’s Eastern Regional Office in Greenville also spoke during the ceremony.

The county has promised Electrolux $500,000 in grant funding over five years, with a $100,000 payment dispatched each year. The state will also provide roughly $1.5 million in tax breaks, Pope and Phillips said.

The Kinston facility will not be expanded, but the layout has been reconfigured to create room for the new production lines – Electrolux’s investment will cover the new machinery and workers – where dishwashers with stainless-steel interiors will be built, Dexter ex-plained.

The executive said the stainless-steel appliances appeal to consumers more than those with polymer and plastic interiors because they are more durable. Building those dishwash-ers “allows us to compete in the premium appliance segment,” he said.

Dexter added: “Essentially, we continue to have a very bright outlook for Kinston and the facility here.”

David Anderson can be reached at (252)559-1077, or danderson@freedomenc.com

Electrolux needs engineers, technicians, material handlers and assembly-line workers for its new dishwasher production lines, which are expected to begin operating in the new few months.

Individuals interested in employment should contact the N.C. Employment Security Commission’s Kinston office.

(252)526-4435-phone
(252)526-4440-fax
2100 Presbyterian Lane
Kinston, NC 28501