Axjo America plans to invest $11.1 million and create 14 new jobs at a new manufacturing facility in Conover. The company expects to consolidate two current facilities into the new location. Axjo America plans to purchase an existing 143,268 square foot facility in Conover and add new machinery and equipment that will allow the company to grow in size and increase product offerings to the cable industry.
Axjo America located in Hickory in 2011 but has since outgrown their facility. After exhausting a search for suitable buildings in Hickory and other locations and states, Axjo selected the Conover facility as best location for the expansion. Axjo uses primarily recycled environmentally friendly materials and the latest injection molding technology to produce fiber-optic reels for spooling equipment. The spools are low weight, UV-resistant and waterproof. Over the next five years Axjo plans on expanding into the large spool sizes adding new injection molding machines each year.
“We are excited to become part of the Conover City community and to grow our business in Catawba County,” said Dan Shelander, Managing Director, Axjo America.
“We are pleased to welcome Axjo America as a corporate partner. Axjo is another example of our city's continued economic development strategy whereby our existing industries continue to grow, the industrial base is diversifying, and empty facilities are being filled. In 2010, Conover had more than 2 million square feet of empty industrial buildings; and thanks to Council's and staff's efforts focusing on economic development, we now have every facility occupied."
"We are happy to see Axjo America grow and we congratulate them on establishing their new facility and creating jobs that will provide more opportunities for our citizens," said Randy Isenhower, Chair of the Catawba County Board of Commissioners. "The fiber optics and cable industry has been a mainstay of our economy for many years, and Axjo's success as a supplier to that industry is a testament to the continued strength of the sector in Catawba County."
"We have been working with Dan Shelander the Managing Director for Axjo America for several months. When they couldn’t find a suitable facility in Hickory, we worked diligently with them to keep them in Catawba County,” said Julie Pruett, Director of Business Recruitment with Catawba County Economic Development Corporation. “It is exciting to see a company develop, evolve and thrive in our community. Plastics manufacturing is a cluster industry in Catawba County and one that we target for recruitment because of the growth and diversification within the industry.”
Axjo America is a subsidiary of Axjo AB, a Swedish company in business since 1945 and a leading supplier of plastic spools in Europe. Grants to encourage Axjo to expand were approved by the Catawba County Board of Commissioners and the Conover City Council at their regularly scheduled board meetings on Monday.