Swedish furniture maker opens Southside Va. plant
About 175 workers were on site Wednesday as a Swedish furniture maker celebrated the opening of its first U.S. factory in Virginia.
Plans call for the operation to employ 300 by the end of 2009, said Swedwood North America president Bengt Danielsson. There is room for expansion on the 209-acre site, and Danielsson said the plant could have as many as 800 workers in 10 to 15 years.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine was at Wednesday’s ceremony to hail the economic boost to the ailing region along the North Carolina border.
Swedwood had been considering Lexington, N.C., but was lured away by the Danville site that had roads, sewer and even all the soil tests completed and permits issued for building, said Jeremy Stratton, the city’s economic development director.
“This just really jumped out as perfect,” IKEA spokesman Joseph Roth said. “They’re a lot more forward-thinking than some other communities in this corridor.”
In addition, more than $12 million in incentives were offered to Swedwood in state, local and Virginia Tobacco Commission funds.
The Swedwood operation alone won’t shore up the economy of the former tobacco stronghold that once supported thousands of Dan River jobs. The unemployment rate in March was still the highest among Virginia metropolitan areas at 7.4 percent, compared to the state average of 3.9 percent.
But local officials say the plant opening is an indication that things are going in the right direction. Since 2004, new companies have promised to create 6,600 jobs in Danville and surrounding Pittsylvania County.
One of them, Com40, is a Polish company that supplies mattresses to IKEA. It plans to employ 813 in a former tobacco processing facility.
Stratton expects more foreign companies to locate in Virginia, because of the weakened dollar. Not only are jobs returning, but they’re better jobs, he said.
Dan River was a patriarchal company that expected its employees to do the same jobs repetitively, he said. New companies coming in encourage employees to get education and offer them “more opportunities to think and offer opinions on how to make things better,” he said.
Tracy Preston took a pay cut to go to work for Swedwood in January for that very reason.
Evans, 42, worked in construction after the Dan River plant closed, but he took a maintenance technician course at Danville Community College that landed him his job as a line supervisor with Swedwood. His $13.25-an-hour pay is more than he made at Dan River.
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