Trinity company receives state grant for expansion

January 1, 2014

City officials announced that a Trinity manufacturer has been awarded a state grant that will assist it with an ongoing expansion of its operation.

Jowat Corp., which makes a variety of adhesives and chemical products at its Uwharrie Road plant, plans to create 14 jobs and invest $4.7 million over the next three years to provide additional production capacity.

City leaders learned recently that the N.C. Department of Commerce has approved up to $70,000 for the project. Last year, Trinity and Randolph County each pledged $1,750 in incentives as part of the required grant match.
Jowat will have to document that it has created the promised jobs and met capital-investment thresholds before it can receive the grants. The expansion, which began last summer, is not complete.

The company was founded in Germany in 1919 and first established a presence in Trinity in 1979. It has a local work force of about 113, making it Trinity’s largest employer.

The company has 850 employees worldwide, and has facilities in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Chile. It plans to establish another location soon in Colombia.

It makes hot melt adhesives, dispersion adhesives, solvent-based adhesives and primer products for customers that include furniture manufacturers, woodworking companies, construction firms, packaging producers and graphic arts industries, as well as companies in the textile, automotive and electrical industries.

It serves markets in North, Central and South America. Company sales totaled more than $67 million last year.
Products made at the Trinity plant are distributed to customers throughout North and South America. Demand is on the rise, and the company’s goal is to reach $150 million in sales of adhesives to the woodworking, paper packaging and automotive industries by 2023, according to Martin Lamberg, vice president of manufacturing for Jowat.

The new jobs will pay average annual wages of $27,991.

Jowat’s expansion is coinciding with that of Novamelt Americas LLC, another adhesives manufacturer located next to Jowat. The companies were part of a joint venture that brought Novamelt to Jowat’s existing campus several years ago. They are now separate, but don’t compete with each other.

Novamelt is undertaking its $2.4 million expansion in phases.

Source: High Point Enterprise