Textile maker expected to begin operations in Walterboro in May

India-based textile manufacturer Sarla Performance Fibers is expected to begin operations at a former plant in Walterboro by May, officials said today.

Sarla, based in Mumbai, India, will employ 100 workers at its new yarn and thread manufacturing facility under the name Sarlaflex at 1497 Industrial Road, which is the 285,000-square-foot former New York Wire building, according to Colliers International, the real estate firm involved in the sale.

Sarla is projected to invest $13.8 million in the deal, with much of it going toward equipment, county officials have said.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a rural infrastructure grant of $500,000 and approved tax credits based on the number of jobs the company creates.

The textile company will anchor a roughly 200-acre commercial park project that will take shape around the facility, officials added.

Sarla’s arrival comes as good news for Colleton County, which has shed a series of jobs during the recession.

The county’s unemployment rate was 10.8 percent in December, above the state’s 8.4 percent average rate but an improvement from the 12.2 percent jobless figure in December 2011, according to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce.

Other jobs on the horizon for the county include Crescent Dairy & Beverages, which announced plans late last year to hire 60 workers for a beverage-processing plant to open around the middle of this year in the Colleton County Commerce Center.