Bagging Up Results
alliance bank & trust, donny hicks, bessemer city, bill sudyk, business, chamber of commerce economic development division, economic development, national gypsum,
A strong partnership between the Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Division – EDD – and the county’s Economic Development Commission has helped Gaston County reinvent its economy.
One of the partnership’s recent success stories is the arrival of Dole Fresh Vegetables, which just opened a 280,000-square-foot plant in Bessemer City to produce fresh, bagged salads. Employment at this plant is expected to grow from 300 initially to 900 within a few years.
Also new on the local scene is the 430,000-square-foot plant being opened in Mount Holly by National Gypsum Corp., which will add 65 jobs initially and 100 eventually, producing 1 billion square feet per year of wallboard used in construction.
A recent addition to the Gastonia economy is an engineering center that designs and tests flight actuation systems for the Curtiss Wright Corp. (The Wright in the name proudly traces its roots to Wilbur and Orville.)
This sort of growth would be a boon to any community; in Gaston County’s case, credit goes to the hard work and strong partnership forged between private and public business.
“We make a concerted effort to go out and call on businesses,” says Bill Sudyk, chair of the Gaston County Chamber of Commerce board and president/CEO of Alliance Bank & Trust. The chamber formed the Economic Development Division a few of years ago to help supplement the county’s efforts.
“With the private fundraising from the chamber, we were able to take our program and advance it significantly,” says Donny Hicks, for 22 years the executive director of the Gaston County Economic Development Commission.
“This private money works really hard because it’s not encumbered by overhead,” Hicks adds. “The county in turn did a smart thing and matched their efforts by hiring a marketing director and taking advantage of these funds. We pay for the personnel and use the money for pure marketing.”
Gaston County has several things going for it when recruiting businesses, including availability of low-cost property and buildings, and a large workforce. Location is also a plus, with downtown Charlotte and the Charlotte airport both less than a 30-minute car ride from Gastonia. Midway between the Florida Keys and New England, and 200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, Gaston County is strategically located to serve the entire eastern United States. And it has a very receptive business community.
“We’re very active in the partnership,” Sudyk says. “Donny might call and say he’s got a prospect and we need to jump on a plane and go to Chicago or wherever, and we’ll take some folks and go meet these people. We don’t want to miss opportunities.”
Story by Jim Elliott
Photo by Linda Durrett/Gaston Chamber of Commerce
