l-r: Will Marklin, Mocksville Mayor-Pro Tem; Terry Renegar, Davie County Board of Commissioners Chairman; David Hodgetts, Avgol COO; Terry Bralley, President Davie County EDC, Ronnie Batchler, Avgol VP Operations North America.
Avgol America today broke ground in Mocksville on a $40 million expansion that will make the Mocksville, NC Avgol America plant the single largest producer of non-woven fabrics in North America. This $40 million investment by Avgol will create 50 new jobs here and add $36 million to the County’s tax base.
Located at 178 Avgol Drive in Mocksville, the company will hold a job fair this fall with plans to begin hiring late this year.
Mocksville and Davie County Competing Globally – And Winning!
As the largest producer of non-woven fabric in the world, Avgol has a global footprint with manufacturing plants in China, Israel and Russia. The Mocksville expansion was considered for all 4 of Avgol’s locations.
Economic Development is a Team Sport
Winning on the global stage doesn’t happen by accident. Davie County can be grateful to have in place a team of local business leaders and elected officials that know how to win in the big leagues. Wins require the coordination and mustering of teams and resources at the municipal, county, and state level.
The Davie County 2-Step
With wins like Ashley Furniture, Volvo, Dunlop, Gildan, Wake Forest Baptist Health, and Pro Refrigeration under their belts in the last several years, elected officials from across Davie County at both the municipal and county levels have learned how to coordinate efforts to get things done quickly and efficiently.
The first two steps in this win occurred when Davie County Commissioners unanimously approved an incentives package valued at almost $800,000 in early May of this year and less than a week later, the Town of Mocksville Board unanimously approved a local incentives package valued at over $300,000.
Incentives granted by the Town of Mocksville and Davie County are structured and paid only after investment and jobs targets are met. This means that the grants are not earned and awarded to the recipient companies until after the promised investments and jobs have been created.
In addition to elected officials and boards, much of the work gets done behind the scenes by town and county staff. City and county planning and zoning departments, building inspectors, water and sewer departments, power companies and more have all learned to work together to make things happen. When it comes to doing business, time is money. And practice over the years has made Davie County, North Carolina an easy place to do business.
The Raleigh 2-Step
Economic development wins require support from our State Government in Raleigh. NC State Representative Julia Howard and NC State Senator Andrew Brock both play leadership roles that help Davie County stay in the spotlight in Raleigh and in the hunt for job creation opportunities.
Local support for the expansion and the support of our elected State officials may have helped pave the way for the win at the next stage of the project. The North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA) in June of this year announced a $220,000 Community Development Block Grant to pay for a rail spur that would make an expansion possible at the Avgol facility in Mocksville. The RIA reviews and approves funding requests for grant programs operated by the Rural Economic Development Division at the N.C. Department of Commerce. These grants support infrastructure development, building renovation and site improvements.
The final piece of the puzzle fell into place on Thursday, August 20 when the North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA) approved an existing buildings grant of $500,000 to support the Avgol expansion.
From the grant announcement: “The Town of Mocksville (Davie County): $500,000 to support Avgol American’s expansion of a 282,069 square-foot building located at 178 Avgol Drive in Mocksville. The company is a global supplier of non-woven hygiene solutions. The building was constructed in 2000 and has been occupied by Avgol American, Inc., for 14 years. The grant supports a total investment of $8,000,025 being made at the property. Avgol American plans to create 50 jobs.”
As Terry Bralley, President of the Davie County Economic Development Commission always likes to say: Economic Development is a team sport in Davie County!
