Fujifilm is building a 2M square foot plant. Then it has to find workers to fill it

The property where Fujifilm Diosynth is building its planned $2 billion manufacturing facility in Holly Springs is so large you can barely see from one end to the other.

But in just a few short years, that same view will be dominated by multiple football-field-sized buildings where new medicines and vaccines will be developed.

It will be one of the largest construction projects in the state (around 2 million square feet of space), and will add 725 new jobs to Wake County in the next five years — a figure so coveted that state and local governments offered more than $100 million in incentives to seal the deal.

But to fill all of those positions, Fujifilm will have to rely on a network of partners from the university level all the way down to the local school system.

“One of the reasons that we chose this location is because of all of the resources that are available,” Fujifilm Diosynth’s CEO Martin Meeson said in an interview.

“You’ve got the universities. You’ve got a community college network,” he said. “And one of the big commitments that the state and the region and those institutions are giving us is they’re going to keep bringing those candidates through.”

With North Carolina continuing to notch economic development wins in the past year, companies are making a bet that the Tar Heel State will continue to funnel talented workers in their direction.

N.C. State University Chancellor Randy Woodson said those expansions, while good, will provide a challenge to North Carolina’s institutions.

“We’re going to have to step up as a state,” Woodson said in an interview at Fujifilm Diosynth’s groundbreaking ceremony, noting the arrivals of both Google and Apple to the Triangle.

“We’re going to have to get back to the business of growing our enrollment in some of these high demand areas,” he said. “We’ve been working with the legislature on a plan to grow our computer science, biotechnology, genetic engineering, biopharmaceutical degree programs that feed into these growing industries.”

Talent, Woodson said, is the first thing every company asks about. “They want to make sure that they can attract and retain a high quality workforce,” he said. “And so we have a responsibility there.”

N.C. State has been a critical partner to Fujifilm Diosynth as it’s built up a presence in the Triangle over the last two decades.

The Japan-based company has partnered with N.C. State’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), an education center that teaches skills specific to pharmaceutical manufacturing. BTEC has trained more than 200 people in Fujifilm Diosynth’s existing workforce. The company has around 600 workers at facilities in Research Triangle Park.

Growing programs, like BTEC, Woodson said, will be critical in the coming years, as highly technical jobs continue to open in the state.

Companies “want to know there are opportunities for them and the university to work collaboratively,” Woodson said.

Meeson said Fujifilm is looking for employees from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just people who have worked in biotechnology before. The company has a robust training program, and has filled many of its jobs with people who are switching careers during the pandemic. Meeson noted it has many roles in logistics, supply chain, facilities management and computer programming.

“Don’t think your skill set might have narrowed you out of where we actually operate,” Meeson said. “We have an extremely broad pool of candidates coming out of other industries and the university system.”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate

This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "Fujifilm is building a 2M square foot plant. Then it has to find workers to fill it."