ARCHDALE — Archdale has another manufacturing operation coming that should boost jobs in the area.
Axium Packaging, a manufacturer of packaging and containers, will create 118 jobs in Randolph County across a three-year period, according to last week’s announcement from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office. The company will invest $32 million to build a manufacturing facility in Archdale.
“We’re really happy to see it,” Archdale mayor Lewis Dorsett said. “We’ve been working on getting that site ready for more than a year.”
Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, Axium is a manufacturer of packaging for personal care, household chemical, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, and food markets.
“Axium’s choice to come to Randolph County and join North Carolina’s manufacturing community underscores our reputation as the best state to do business,” Cooper said in a statement. “We offer many advantages from collaborative workforce training to a well-maintained infrastructure that will help manufacturers thrive.”
Since 2011, the company has grown to 3,000 employees across 18 facilities. The 150,000-square-foot facility in Archdale will be Axium’s first North Carolina site and 19th plant in North America.
This was a deal that was termed “Project Superman” in the recent City of Archdale meeting minutes. City manager Zeb Holden was instrumental in working on the project, Dorsett and Archdale-Trinity Chamber of Commerce president Ashlee Willett said.
Dorsett said collaboration with Randolph County commissioners and the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation, with business recruitment director Crystal Gettys leading the effort, proved critical.
“This has been a huge work in progress for Archdale,” said Willett, who took her position in early January and said the groundwork had been set well before that.
The location is a piece of designated industrial land across from Thomas Built Buses. Dorsett said there had been abandoned residential buildings there in the past.
“I appreciate the collaboration between state and local partners to bring this project to North Carolina,” said Paul Judge, president of Axium Packaging. “We’re grateful for their support throughout the expedited site selection process, which helped us identify the right location for Axium’s expansion. We are excited to begin operating in 2024.”
It’s the second significant positive regarding jobs in Archdale in a matter of months. Late in 2022, Sumitomo Forestry America’s announcement of establishing a manufacturing facility came with the expectation of 129 new jobs.
Dorsett said the key to pulling together the arrangement with Axium Packaging was having the 35-acre site ready for a company to build there. That process began months ago, even without knowing there would be a company willing to occupy the location.
“The reason it moved so quick is that they needed to have a site ready,” Dorsett said. “We’ve been working on that, and we have something ready. That’s the advantage.”
The governor’s office said the annual wage for the new positions would be $7,938, so that’s higher than Randolph County’s overall average wage of about $43,000.
A performance-based grant of $365,000 from the One North Carolina Fund was part of the lure for Axium.
New N.C. Representative Brian Biggs said this is continued momentum for jobs and investment in Randolph County.
“We’re excited to welcome Axium to Archdale,” said N.C. Senator David W. Craven, Jr. “Plastics represents the second-largest manufacturing sector for Randolph County, which provides a booming cluster of plastic producers and manufacturing excellence for the state.”
