West will expand Kinston factory

The medical products maker plans to invest $29 million and will add jobs.

By John Murawski STAFF WRITER

A medical-products manufacturer plans a second major expansion of a Kinston factory that was destroyed in a 2003 explosion and then rebuilt.

State and local officials will give the company, West Pharmaceutical Services, up to $3.5 million in tax credits and other financial incentives for its promise to invest $29 million at the Kinston plant over five years. The facility in Kinston, about 90 miles southeast of Raleigh, makes components for syringes and injection devices.

The Pennsylvania-based company plans to fill positions in microbiology and engineering, even though the state and local incentives are not contingent on job creation.

West is scheduled to announce plans in Kinston at an event this evening with CEO Donald Morel, state and local public officials, and the Kinston High School Choir.

West said told public officials it selected Kinston for upgrades over other plants in North Carolina, Florida and Nebraska. The $29 million will pay for new technologies in washing, inspection and clean manufacturing processes to be used in the production of pharmaceutical packaging products.

In its home state, meanwhile, West is shutting down a manufacturing facility and laying off 170 employees this year. That facility’s production will be transferred to other sites.

West employs 325 people in Kinston after having added more than 100 jobs in the past four years.

West spokeswoman Genevieve Gadenne said the company has not determined how many more jobs it will add in Kinston. She noted West did not cut jobs locally during the recession.

The local and state incentives are not contingent on job creation, said N.C. Department of Commerce spokeswoman Kimberly McCarl.

For the Kinston expansion, West stands to receive just over $1million in local incen- tives from Lenoir County, up to $500,000 from the state utility fund for infrastructure improvements, and up to $2 million in tax credits from the N.C. Department of Revenue.

Officials at the Lenoir County Economic Development Department could not be reached for comment.

West has had a presence in Kinston since 1975, but the original plant was destroyed in the explosion that killed six people and injured several dozen. The facility was rebuilt in 2004.

West announced a $20 million upgrade in Kinston in 2007. At that time, the company employed 211 at the site.

West committed to create 154 jobs, qualifying for a One N.C. incentive grant worth up to $300,000. To date, West has received $225,000 of that job-creation grant, McCarl said.

john.murawski@newsobserver

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