The 5 biggest NC job announcements of 2024: A different kind of battery maker tops the list
North Carolina stuck to the script in 2024. Drug manufacturing and alternative energy projects have accounted for several of the biggest state-backed economic projects in recent years, and this trend continued these past 12 months.
In high-growth communities south of Raleigh, two giant biotech companies announced site expansions which could bring hundreds more jobs. Over in Eastern North Carolina, a solar panel producer from Asia pledged to build its first U.S. manufacturing hub while a California company said it will fill a long-dormant megasite with a $1.4 billion battery factory.
And in the Piedmont, one of the country’s biggest discount department store chains committed to build an 850-worker warehouse. This doesn’t fit the narrative of green technologies and life sciences, but it’s a major jobs number nonetheless.
Before getting to the top job news, it’s important to highlight the caveat: These projects are not guarantees. They are corporate aspirations backed by the belief and incentive dollars of North Carolina. Since 2003, the state has enticed companies to grow here with Job Development Investment Grants, or JDIGs, and in that time, most JDIG projects have not reached their initial jobs and investment targets.
Some projects have achieved their goals and more. Others create many jobs but not what was pledged. And more still ended their efforts before hiring anyone. JDIG recipients only receive grant payments when they meet job creation and investment thresholds.
Whether this year’s job commitments sink or swim will be known in time. But for now, let’s explore the dreams.
Natron Energy, 1,062 jobs
North Carolina has bet big on lithium-ion batteries, but with its largest jobs project of the year, the state landed a company that makes an alternative alternative battery.
In August, California-based Natron Energy selected the Kingsboro Business Park in Rocky Mount to build a massive $1.4 billion sodium-ion battery plant. Between 2028 and 2032, the company says it’ll create 1,062 jobs at an average salary of at least $64,700.
Started in 2012, Natron opened its first commercial battery factory this spring in Holland, Michigan. The company says its incoming North Carolina plant will be 40 times larger.
Sodium-ion is an emerging battery material that shows promise for running stationary applications like power grids. In contrast, lighter-weight lithium is better suited for powering transportable applications like laptops and cars.
Natron is leading the sodium-ion industry. In addition to private investors, the company received a $20 million grant through a U.S. Department of Energy program designed to advance “high-risk and potentially disruptive new technologies.”
Novo Nordisk, 1,000 jobs
Wegovy and Ozempic should be credited with this expansion. In June, the Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk said it would add 1.4 million square feet of production space to its Johnston County facility by the end of the decade in the largest announced private life science investment in state history.
Since the 1990s, Novo Nordisk has operated a facility in Clayton, where it makes injectable finished products like insulin pens to treat diabetes. In the past few years however, the company has seen skyrocketing demand for its injectable weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. In 2023, the latter generated around $4.5 billion in sales, and Novo Nordisk this past spring said approximately 25,000 new people in the U.S. started taking Wegovy each week.
“The importance of this facility we’re making is ensuring that we are flexible to both produce weight-loss products but also other chronic diseases,” Novo Nordisk vice president Niels Laurbjerg Nielsen said.
Novo Nordisk’s Johnston County expansion alone would be twice the size of its three existing Triangle-area sites combined. Construction in Clayton has already begun, with the company erecting foundational beams on one of the nine structures it expects to open there between 2027 and 2029.
Boviet Solar, 908 jobs
Setting a fast timeline, the Vietnamese solar producer Boviet Solar in April pledged to build a 900-worker facility in the Eastern North Carolina city of Greenville by 2028. The $294 million site is projected to encompass more than 1 million square feet.
Boviet is a subsidiary of the Chinese firm Boway Alloy, and establishing a U.S. production site could sidestep any future tariffs placed on foreign solar panel manufacturers. Average wages at the Pitt County site would be $52,879, according to the grant agreement Boviet entered with the state.
Gov. Roy Cooper lauded the solar project this spring, saying in a statement that this decision “has proven yet again that North Carolina is a hub for clean energy, offering advanced manufacturers a skilled workforce, an excellent quality of life, and affordable communities to support its work in sustainability.”
Ross Dress For Less, 852 jobs
The small Randolph County city of Randleman is slated to get a $450 million, 852-worker warehouse from the discount retail chain Ross Dress for Less. Ross Stores, the parent company, says facility positions will pay an average wage of $55,800. Under the grant, Ross will invest $450 million at the warehouse south of Greensboro by the end of 2026 and hit its initial hiring target there by 2028.
In May, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded Ross a JDIG worth up to $7.6 million in payroll tax benefits should the company meet hiring and investment targets. Additional state incentives included $1 million from the General Assembly, while county and local governments offered the retailer nearly $40 million in further support.
“Projects like these are a testament to the collaborative efforts of our state’s General Assembly, local officials, and economic development professionals,” state Rep. Brian Biggs said in a statement.
FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, 680 jobs
The photography-turned-pharmaceutical manufacturer Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in April announced a $1.2 billion, 680-job expansion to its forthcoming Wake County plant.
A division of its Japanese parent Fujifilm Corp., Fujifilm Diosynth is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturer. It doesn’t create medicines itself but instead mass produces the drugs other companies invent. The company has a campus in Research Triangle Park and is readying a more massive plant in Holly Springs, a town of 46,000 southwest of Raleigh.
Fujifilm executives hope to open the site in 2025. With its latest expansion, the plant aims to eventually employ more than 1,400 workers by 2031.
“We might even discuss another expansion,” Fujifilm Diosynth CEO Lars Petersen told The News & Observer this spring. “That’s also why we have a site that is capable of expanding one more time.”
Holly Springs has emerged as a biotech manufacturing center, with the California drugmaker Amgen recently announcing a major expansion to its future local production plant.
.jpg "IMG_3988 (1).jpg")
Rest of the Top 10
- Siemens Energy, 559 jobs in Charlotte and Raleigh
- Green New Energy Materials, 545 jobs in the Lincoln County town of Denver
- Crystal Window & Door, 501 new jobs in Selma
- Johnson & Johnson, 420 jobs in Wilson
- Amgen, 370 jobs in Holly Springs
This story was originally published December 27, 2024 at 7:00 AM with the headline "The 5 biggest NC job announcements of 2024: A different kind of battery maker tops the list."
