NC kills incentive deals for 2 Charlotte-area companies as job pledges unravel
North Carolina has ended job creation incentives Tuesday for two Charlotte-region companies after they failed to produce the promised jobs.
One case involved incentives for a Huntersville electric vehicle charger manufacturer to create around 200 jobs and invest $4 million in Mecklenburg County. But Atom Power informed the state it would fall far short of its hiring goals.
The N.C. Economic Investment Committee on Tuesday voted to end its 2023 grant to Atom Power, which manufactures chargers and EV charging software.
At the same meeting, North Carolina also ended an incentive for the Charlotte door and window manufacturer JELD-WEN to hire 235 workers in Statesville. JELD-WEN committed to its expansion in 2021, but late last year announced it would lay off 850 workers across its North American sites amid operating loses.
The N.C. grant for JELD-WEN would have provided up to $2.2 million in payroll tax rebates over a dozen years; the Atom Power grant would have provided up to $1.2 million.
North Carolina uses job development investment grants, or JDIGs, as its chief incentive to companies choosing where to expand. State records show Atom Power has not received any state payments through its terminated grant.
Since the JDIG program began in the early 2000s, most recipient companies have not achieved their original hiring or investment targets.
Unlike Atom Power, JELD-WEN did receive money through its now-canceled grant: approximately $74,000 in tax rebates for hiring 143 workers. It gets to keep that rebate.
Atom Power and promised jobs
The state’s action against Atom Power came nearly a month after the company’s chief financial officer wrote a letter to the committee requesting the cancellation.
The company now has about 30 workers. Atom Power CFO Terry Simpson said the company ended 2025 with only about 10% of the total employees it would need to satisfy its job development investment grant. In addition to the 200 new hires, the manufacturer had committed to retain 112 workers in North Carolina.
“Based on current business conditions and operational realities, the company has determined that the anticipated growth and expansion that formed the basis of the JDIG award will not occur,” Simpson wrote on Jan. 28.
Based in Huntersville, Atom Power was co-founded in 2014 by CEO Ryan Kennedy.
In May 2023, Atom Power signaled a major expansion, pledging a $4.2 million investment to bolster its Huntersville operations and add 205 new jobs to the local economy. It was one of several “green energy” economic projects North Carolina backed during the second term of Gov. Roy Cooper
While EV sales have risen nationwide since, lower-than-expected purchases and financial losses have caused automakers to cut back plans for electric vehicles.
JELD-WEN faces setbacks
Founded in Oregon in 1960, JELD-WEN established its first Charlotte-based window assembly plant in 1962. It moved its corporate headquarters to the region in 2012.
Today, the company employs more than 270 people across the Charlotte region. But the manufacturer’s growth plans have recently stalled.
In 2021, JELD-WEN announced a $7 million investment to open a new plant in Statesville, a move expected to create more than 230 jobs. Those plans were derailed by mounting financial challenges, The Charlotte Observer reported.
The company’s struggles continued in November with the announcement of 850 layoffs across North America, following a $378 million net operating loss in its third-quarter earnings report.
This contraction follows a series of recent downsizing efforts. In March 2025, nearly 300 employees were laid off at an Iowa facility, the Des Moines Register reported. And in 2024, more than 150 positions were cut in Iowa, alongside the closure of two manufacturing plants in California and Wisconsin that resulted in 450 job losses.
Despite these setbacks, JELD-WEN remains a global entity, operating facilities in 14 countries across North America and Europe, with a total workforce of 13,900.
Reporter Catherine Muccigrosso contributed to this report
This story was originally published February 24, 2026 at 3:32 PM with the headline "NC kills incentive deals for 2 Charlotte-area companies as job pledges unravel."
