Caterpillar Fast Facts:
Total Incentives: $51 million from Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and NC
Investment: Caterpillar made a $426 million investment
Employees: Currently employs 120+ (including contractors)
Average pay: $40,000/year (does not include benefits – strictly pay)
Benefits: Health, Dental 401K, Tuition assistance program
Hiring: Continues at www.jointeamcaterpillar.com
More Info: Plan to have 500 employees by end of 2013/beginning of 2014 when they’re fully operational. (398 full time, 118 contract workers). Shipment of first axle expected in January 2012.
Winston-Salem, NC -- Caterpillar opened their new Forsyth County plant Wednesday morning.
"All I can say is the future looks very bright for this plant here," said Steve Wunning, Caterpillar Group President, "and Caterpillar is very excited about being here and we see a lot of growth."
The company came to Winston-Salem with the promise to hire more than 500 workers at their plant off Union Cross Road. The new plant is located near the former Dell Computer plant.
The company broke ground on the facility just over a year ago.
When the plant was announced in 2010, Governor Perdue said the company would create 392 jobs over the next five years and invest $426 million. As hiring began, the company said they expected to hire 400 full time workers and another 100 contractors.
ON THE WEB: Learn More About Caterpillar Jobs
The building is a total of 850,000 square feet and will be used to build, test and paint parts for mining machines. Workers will make axles that will go on mining trucks. The axles weigh as much as 50 tons.
Winston-Salem, Forsyth County and the State of North Carolina offered an incentive package for Caterpillar said to be worth more than $40 million in incentives. Forsyth County was picked over locations in South Carolina and Alabama.
The overall average for jobs at the plant is $40,482 a year, plus benefits. That is higher than the Forsyth County average of $40,352.
Caterpillar expects to do the bulk of its hiring during 2012. They plan to be at full capacity by the beginning of 2014. That's when they expect to be at their employment goal of 500 full-time anc contract workers.
More than 120 people work at Caterpillar currently. They've made three giant axles so far with the first expected to be shipped to Brazil in January.
The company has already attracted other businesses to the area. A logistics company plans to locate down the road on a ten acre site. Bob Leak, President of Winston-Salem Business, Inc. expects more to follow.
"Within less than a mile of Caterpillar, we have a million square feet of available manufacturing and industrial space. It's brand new less than five years old, and we're putting that information out to the world letting them know they, too, can do business here." said Leak.
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