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Blum to add 20 jobs, spend $16M at Lincoln County cabinet hardware plant

December 8, 2016

Ken Elkins Senior Staff Writer Charlotte Business Journal

Blum plant upgrades to total $28.5 million

Blum Inc. in Lincoln County will add up to 20 jobs at its cabinet hardware plant in Stanley as it spends $16 million to upgrade the facility.

The new jobs will boost employment there to more than 400 as the company enjoys an uptick in demand for its products, says Karl Rudisser, Blum CEO.

“Anytime we invest back into our plant and operations, the benefits not only stimulate success for Blum but also reach into the community in the form of good jobs and more spending in the local economy,” he says.

Lincoln County will chip in a total of $362,110 in incentives over seven years.

Jim Watson, chairman of the Lincoln Economic Development Association, says Blum expansions and additional jobs have been welcome in Lincoln County.

“These expansions could have gone other places, but LEDA along with the support of the county commissioners helped put the right package together to help these companies grow in our community,” Watson says.

Bill Beam, chairman of the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners, says the additional jobs are particularly welcome during the holiday season.

The Blum expansion follows the recent completion of a $4.4 million solar panel installation at the plant that started production in 1979. The roof of the facility now contains 6,600 solar panels, which began generating power earlier this year.

That work was a part of a $28.5 million expansion at the plant that Blum began in late 2014.

In this latest expansion, about $7 million will go toward equipment upgrades in Blum’s automated warehouse at the plant site. Another $6 million will be spent on machinery and tools used to make hinges, drawer runners and lift systems that are used in cabinets.

Blum is the North American subsidiary of Blum GmbH, a Hoechst, Austria, company that employs 7,000 worldwide.

Ken Elkins covers manufacturing, international business and economic development for the Charlotte Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2016/12/07/blum-to-add-20-jobs-spend-16m-at-lincoln-county.html