A European company with deep ties to York County is now branching into Lancaster County.
Lancaster County Council approved a tax incentive deal Tuesday night for Atlas Copco Compressors. The 20-year deal offers the company a negotiated fee in place of taxes and credits against that fee, as long as Atlas Copco hits performance targets.
Atlas Copco plans a 400,000-square-foot distribution center in Lancaster County. It will store imported air compressors that are mainly sold to commercial users
The company is required to invest $41 million and create 125 jobs within five years. Atlas Copco projects a $51 million investment and 163 jobs in that span.
Lancaster County would offer $5.9 million in tax credits during the incentive agreement span. The county would receive about $22 million in revenue.
“This offer is consistent with prior large, state-supported projects in Lancaster (County) of this scope,” said Brian Fulk, county economic development director.
The move shouldn’t impact the company’s extensive presence in York County.
“The project involves a consolidation and movement of existing sites in another location outside of South Carolina,” Fulk said.
Atlas Copco Group is a Swedish company with more than 50,000 employees worldwide. That company generates more than $16 billion in annual revenue, Fulk said.
One of its brands, power tool and equipment maker Chicago Pneumatic, moved to Waterford Business Park in Rock Hill in 1997. The company later moved its compressor operations to a site near Riverwalk. Compressed air and gas headquarters moved seven years ago to the Lowenstein Building in Rock Hill.
Atlas Copco was one of the early companies to locate in that University Center area as it transitioned from abandoned mills to a growing business hub. The company also made pumps, power equipment and lights from a site on Paragon Way, near Interstate 77.
The company has about 1,000 employees in the Rock Hill and Charlotte region.
“They’re invested in Rock Hill like we wish everyone would invest in Rock Hill,” Mayor John Gettys said two years ago, as the parent company celebrated 150 years in business.
The location of the new facility has not been disclosed yet. Of the planned jobs at the facility, Fulk said, up to 50 are expected to be new hires.
The average wage is expected to be $32 per hour, with the average for unskilled workers set at $22 per hour, Fulk said. If the company exceeds its investment or hiring requirements, he said, the incentive deal could remain in place even if the other part of the proposal isn’t met. One could offset the other.
Lancaster County averages $1,205 in weekly wages across all industries, or $30.13 per hour for a 40-hour week. Only Mecklenburg County at $1,569 per week ($39.23 per hour) is higher in the 11-county Charlotte metro region, according to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics update this month.