Industry Spotlight
Extensive expertise with ports, where each minute the ship sits waiting to get unloaded is a major cost, has propelled TICO Manufacturing of Ridgeland, SC, to build the most efficient heavy-duty vehicles in the industry. Since 1946, the company has grown to be the largest fleet owner and operator in North America, so TICO (Terminal Investment Corporation) produces trucks and trailers made to sustain enormous weight loads and provide continuous service in very brutal environments. These requirements demand a workforce in expert welding and metal fabrication to produce trucks and equipment with the quality and durability for which TICO is known. The company continues to grow their operations at their Ridgeland site, where TICO now employs 80 in manufacturing in a location that provides excellent access to the ports of Charleston and Savannah.
Meter Bearings Group, a designer and producer of ball and cylindrical roller bearings, will establish its first U.S. manufacturing facility in the Southern Carolina region of South Carolina at a 48,000- square-foot facility in Walterboro. The $4.5 million investment is expected to create 48 new jobs over the next five years and will begin production in 2015.
A family-owned company, Meter Bearings Group is headquartered in Robassomero, Torino, Italy. Founded in 1981, Meter has manufacturing plants in Italy and China and customer support offices in Germany and the United States.
“Part of our growth strategy is to establish a manufacturing operation in the United States to reach our customers that already exist there. We chose Colleton County, thanks to the great and professional support of the South Carolina Department of Commerce staff and local officials,” said Vittorio Musso, President and CEO of Meter S.p.A.
Meter Bearings Group will utilize the Port of Charleston for its importing and exporting needs, which influenced the company’s decision to locate in South Carolina. The company is coordinating with readySC®, South Carolina’s renowned worker training program led by the S.C. Technical College system, to create a customized, pre-employment training program that meets Meter Bearings Group’s standards of precision in manufacturing.
Parma, Italy, halfway between Bologna and Milan, has a glorious history that traces back to the Etruscans. Perhaps best known for its splendid architecture and its foods, the region is also a center of art and music, higher learning, and glass-making, and the world’s leading glassware manufacturer, Luigi Bormioli.
As Italian glassmakers go, Luigi Bormioli is relatively young (founded 1946), but the company’s devotion to design aesthetics and glass craftsmanship are rooted in Italian glassmaking methods that have flourished on the Venetian island of Murano since the Middle Ages. Mr. Luigi Bormioli, the company’s founder, had a mission that the Bormioli family continues today: a commitment to great design, traditional Italian craftsmanship and new-age glassmaking technology to create beautiful glassware of the highest quality. Luigi Bormioli rivals fine crystal in appearance and elegance, but is lead-free, affordably priced and widely available.
According to Marcel Trepanier, founder of the U.S. subsidiary of Luigi Bormioli, South Carolina’s infrastructure was a key factor in the company’s location decision to locate in the state. In 2007 the company chose a 162,000 SF building at an industrial park in Barnwell, SC, to meet their growing distribution needs in North America.
In the U.S., Luigi Bormioli’s glassware is sold at fine retailers, including Macy’s, Target, Nordstrom’s, Belk, Bloomingdale’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and through Amazon.com. For more information on Luigi Bormioli, visit their website: www.luigibormioli.com.
A leader in the research, design, manufacturing and distribution of a broad range of belts, tensioners and pulleys for the automotive, trucking, construction, agricultural and industrial markets, Dayco has been manufacturing in the Southern Carolina region of South Carolina for more than 40 years. The company has continually invested in our workforce through four decades in two of our communities, Williston in Barnwell County and Walterboro in Colleton County. Dayco employs 130 at the Walterboro site, where they produce v-belts and serpentine belts for the original equipment industry and the automotive after-market, as well as performance belts for the ATV and snowmobile markets. The company employs 330 people at the Williston location, which is the after-market and OEM belt center for the company in North America.
South Carolina was recently named the most patriotic state in the nation, according to a national study by the real estate research firm Movoto. The Palmetto State received the ranking based on the study’s measure of: veterans per capita, national historic landmarks per capita; money spent to fund veterans; percent of residents who voted in the last Presidential election; people who Google for American flags to buy; and people who list America as an interest on Facebook.
It’s true that in South Carolina, we respect and honor those who have served our country . . . and everyone knows that in South Carolina, we make sure our voices are heard on Election Day. What the research firm’s study missed, though, is that in South Carolina we don’t just wave the American flag, we produce it.