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CREE INVESTING $135M, CREATING 244 JOBS BY 2013DURHAM, Sep 21, 2010 (The Herald-Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- LED maker Cree Inc. announced plans Monday to invest $135 million in a new production line and create 244 more jobs in Durham by 2013. The company will receive about $4.2 million in local and state incentives for this latest expansion. The new jobs will be on top of the more than 600 workers the company has hired since the start of 2009. Cree had announced last October, without the benefit of local and state incentives, that it planned to hire 575 people within three years. The company exceeded that goal in less than a year. In an event attended by Gov. Beverly Perdue, U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan, Congressman David Price and other state and local officials, Cree CEO Chuck Swoboda said Monday innovation and production of LEDs goes hand in hand with wider adoption of LEDs in the marketplace. The company has been pushing for the adoption of LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, a silicon carbide-based lighting technology, which use less energy and last longer than incandescent lightbulbs. "If we don't embrace LED lighting and other new technologies, [the U.S.] will not be able to lead," Swoboda said. "It is time for us to lead." The company has begun renovating an existing manufacturing space at its facilities in Durham's Research Triangle Park for the production of 150mm LED wafers. "Wafers" are the foundations on which LED chips are built. The new technology doubles the size of current wafers, thereby increasing the number of LEDs and making them more cost-effective. To entice Cree to launch this latest expansion, Durham County Commissioners approved a $2 million incentives package for the company last week. Of that, $825,000 was reserved for training new employees who are Durham residents. The funds will be paid out over seven years. Casey Steinbacher, president of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce, said after the event that Cree's decision to expand in Durham was "very much contingent on the county money." Perdue's office announced Monday that the state also approved a Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) to Cree that could yield up to $2.24 million for the company over 10 years. In addition, up to $746,000 could be added to the state's Industrial Development Fund for infrastructure improvements in economically distressed counties. When a JDIG is awarded in the state's more prosperous counties, which includes Durham, 25 percent of the grant is allocated to the fund to encourage economic development in less prosperous areas. Partly as a result of the incentives, the company chose to expand in Durham instead of China or Malaysia, where it also has manufacturing facilities. Perdue and other government officials praised Cree, which was founded by N.C. State University graduates in 1987, for being a homegrown company that has continued to innovate and grow. "You're writing the first chapters of the 21st Century," Perdue said. Other officials also pointed to the importance of job creation in a depressed economy. "This expansion will have a ripple effect throughout our community," said County Commissioner Vice Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow. Cree currently employs 1,723 full-time workers in Durham. The 244 new jobs will be 150 full-time positions and 94 contract positions. The average wage will be $42,726, below Durham's county average of $57,772. Globally, the company employs an additional 2,700 people in China, Malaysia, Japan and Germany. The company posted $152.3 million in profits in fiscal year 2010, up 402 percent from annual profits in 2009. To see more of The Herald-Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-sun.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). |