SAERTEX USA Expands in Mecklenburg County

SAERTEX USA LLC said Tuesday it will spend $6.5 million to expand its factory in Huntersville, NC creating 178 new jobs over the next three years. The move came with the help of $240,00 in incentive grants from Huntersville, Mecklenburg County and the state of North Carolina.

Based in Saerback, Germany, SAERTEX makes lightweight composite materials used by manufacturers in the wind energy, aerospace, civil engineering, auto and shipbuilding industries.

The company first told local officials about the possible expansion a year ago and was considering sites in Brazil and Colorado as well as Huntersville, according to Jerry Broadway, executive director of the Lake Norman Regional Economic Development Corp. One option would have required closing the Huntersville plant and building a larger plant in Colorado.

“This project points out the importance of working with our existing companies,” Mike Griffin, chairman of the Lake Norman Regional EDC, said in a press release. The SAERTEX announcement “is exactly the outcome we hoped would occur” when the LNREDC started its Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) program two years ago.

In exchange for its pledge to expand and add employees, Saertex will get grants of up to $240,000 from various sources, Mr. Broadway said. That includes $110,000 from the state’s One North Carolina Fund, to be distributed as the company meets goals for hiring and retaining new employees, and incentives of $45,000 over 5 years from Huntersville, and $80,000 over 3 years from Mecklenburg County – both payable as rebates on taxes the company pays.