PVC extruder Veka Inc. selected Morganton, N.C., for an $18 million manufacturing plant that will create 102 jobs over five years.
The Fombell, Pa.-based company, which makes vinyl windows, fences, decking and rails, will turn a 160,000-square-foot former Caterpillar Inc. facility into Veka East.
It will have up to 30 extrusion lines, offices and a warehouse, with operations scheduled to begin in the second half of 2018.
“North Carolina was a perfect location choice for us,” Veka President and CEO Joe Peilert said in a news release. “The state offers a great business climate, is strategically located to support our customer growth and takes advantage of U.S. population and migration trends.”
North Carolina's population has grown by 611,000 since 2010 with an increase of 112,000 people between 2015 and 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Migration, as opposed to births and deaths, has been the main driver of the population change and will continue to be. By 2030-2035, 97.5 percent of North Carolina's growth is expected to come from net migration, according to the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
“If past trends are an indication, these are individuals who will move here for educational and employment opportunities, as well as individuals who will move here to retire,” the center says in a July 2017 data release.
Veka was lured to the vacant Caterpillar plant, in part, by economic incentives from the city of Morganton and Burke County as well as a $500,000 performance-based grant from the One N.C. Fund, which provides financial assistance to local governments to attract investment and jobs.
The company's other U.S. sites are Veka South in Terrell, Texas, and Veka West in Reno, Nev.
Veka Inc. is the North American subsidiary of Veka AG, which is based in Sendenhorst, Germany. Veka AG says it is the world's largest extruder of PVC profiles for windows, doors, fences, decks and rails with more than 5,000 employees in 30-plus countries.
With estimated sales of $175 million, Veka Inc. ranks No. 22 in the annual survey of North American pipe, profile and tubing extruders by Plastics News.
