Caterpillar plant in Newberry to add jobs

COLUMBIA -- Caterpillar plans to more than triple employment at its 4-year-old diesel generator plant in Newberry.

The company said Tuesday that it expects within four years to add up to 500 workers to the 190 already employed at the plant, spokesman Jim Dugan said.

Hiring could start late this year, he said, with the pace of adding workers depending on the speed of the economic recovery.

Caterpillar will receive state job-development credits and a $700,000 grant for site work, said a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Commerce, which worked with county and regional development officials on the expansion.

Newberry County gave Caterpillar tax breaks on new machinery heading to the plant, said Teresa Powers, the county's economic development director.

Caterpillar is transferring generator work done at its Griffin, Ga., plant to the 450,000-square-foot Newberry facility near Interstate 26, Dugan said.

That will allow the Georgia plant to concentrate on making engines, he said.

Caterpillar is making the moves as it "sees signs that the economy is improving since last year," Dugan said.

The Newberry plant makes generators used in larger homes, stores, farms and cell towers.

Caterpillar built the Newberry plant in 1998 but did not open it for manufacturing until 2006 because of a slowdown in worldwide sales.

When the plant was first announced, the company had hoped to employ 500 people by 2001. The South Carolina plant got work that was done in Northern Ireland.

Caterpillar also has an engine plant in Greenville, a components facility in Sumter, a remanufacturing plant in Summerville and a logistics operation in Fountain Inn.

Newberry has been dealing with ups and downs of manufacturing work in recent years.

The area lost 570 jobs when the Renfro sock factory closed in 2009 and 175 jobs when the Brunswick boat factory shut down in 2008. Newberry's jobless rate was 13 percent in January, while the state's average was 12.6 percent.