Home Care In Piedmont, SC

PIEDMONT, S.C. —

Isuzu North America has started construction on a $280 million production facility in Greenville County, South Carolina, which will assemble commercial vehicles and create hundreds of new jobs once operational.

Gov. Henry McMaster joined Isuzu and local leaders for the groundbreaking of the facility on Tuesday.

"The good news is that they want to come to South Carolina, and it's always because of the people, the South Carolinians, that they want to do the work that they're entrusting this place to," McMaster said.

The facility, located along Augusta Road in Piedmont, will house Isuzu's assembly and logistics area. Isuzu plans to build about 50,000 new vehicles in the Upstate by the new decade.

The plant is anticipated to create 700-plus jobs, with employees assembling the company's N and F series of commercial vehicles.

"I think this is one of the biggest investments since maybe even BMW, and opportunities for not only economic investment, but for real quality jobs that pay a good wage for our citizens to take," Greenville County Council Chairman Benton Blount said. "When we looked through the data, it was anywhere between $27 and $37 an hour for somebody on an assembly line or for working in a facility, so it's definitely a good place to work."

Shigeo Yamada, the Japanese ambassador to the U.S., highlighted the strong economic partnership between Japan and South Carolina. He said Japanese companies have invested approximately $9.2 billion in the state so far.

"In his conversation with President Trump earlier this year, Prime Minister [Shigeru] Ishiba mentioned this very Isuzu factory as a clear and concrete example of the strong economic partnership," Yamada said.

McMaster expressed the state's commitment to recruiting manufacturers like Isuzu and emphasized the potential for growth in the electric vehicle market.

"There is a market for electric vehicles, and we want to be open to that and support it and let those jobs, let that technology, that innovation, let that be a part of South Carolina," the governor said.

Isuzu North America expects the facility will be operational in 2027, and company officials said there is room to expand.

Changes at a Piedmont medicine manufacturing facility will result in 114 job losses, although the company says those employees will have a chance to secure more than 50 positions created by a new shift.

PL Developments said in a statement the result will be greater output from the site by adding four operating hours.

Companies operating in South Carolina are subject to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires them to file a WARN form that gives 60 days notice of plant closings or mass layoffs.

“Under the WARN regulations, eliminating a shift technically required us to send the WARN notice,” the company said in an email sent by Charles Cain, general counsel and chief administrative officer from the company’s headquarters in Westbury, N.Y. “While this scheduling change did unfortunately affect 114 positions, we are offering those affected more than 50 positions on the new third shift. We also gave the requisite 60-day notice to all affected employees and are continuing to pay them during this period.”

The WARN notice was published with others on the SC Works website, which led to some misinformation and speculation about the future of the plant, he said, adding that the company is committed to the Piedmont site.

“The WARN notice related to the restructuring of job schedules at this facility,” the email said. “We are changing from two 10-hour shifts four days a week (M-T) with a three-day weekend shift of 12 hours each, by eliminating the weekend shift and adding a third shift during the week. The facility will now operate on a five-day (M-F) schedule, with three eight-hour shifts each day.

“The reason for this change is to increase plant capacity (we added four more operating hours each week), and to reduce machine downtime. We remain very committed to the Old Griffin Road facility and to the Piedmont, S.C., region.”

Cain said the job scheduling change did not affect any of the company’s other location in the state. PL Developments operates two distribution centers in Duncan, one on Tyger River Drive and another at 417 Apple Valley Road.

The facility at 513 Old Griffin Road in Piedmont manufactures and packages a variety of over-the-counter consumer health care products.

PIEDMONT, S.C. (FOX Carolina) - An Upstate facility is expected to permanently layoff over 100 people.

According to the SC WARN report, PL Developments’ manufacturing and packaging facility, located at 513 Old Griffin Road in Piedmont, is expected to close on Oct. 30. This impacts 114 employees.

South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce was notified of the layoffs on Aug. 29.

The company released the following statement:

Stay tuned as we work to learn more.

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Greenville County is one step closer to becoming home to a production facility for Isuzu North America Corporation.

A groundbreaking event is scheduled for Oct. 1, marking Isuzu's new facility at 7755 Augusta Road in Piedmont, which is expected to significantly expand the company's presence in America by employing more than 700 workers.

During the upcoming event, Gov. Henry McMaster and other corporate officials from the company will speak at the plant, which plans to begin operations in 2027 and produce up to 50,000 vehicles a year.

In a release, Isuzu said it planned to "expand its vehicle supply capabilities in anticipation of the electrification of commercial vehicles in North America."

The company has purchased a one-million-square-foot facility on over 200 acres of land and will convert it into an Isuzu-run assembly plant.

“Isuzu’s decision to bring its operations to Greenville County marks an exciting new chapter for our community,” said Greenville County Council Chairman Benton Blount in a news release prepared by the office of Gov. Henry McMaster.

“This investment will generate quality jobs, strengthen our automotive sector, and showcase the advantages Greenville County offers to businesses looking for a strategic location and a highly capable workforce.”

McMaster added that the Japanese firm’s $280 million investment “reinforces South Carolina as a top destination for the automotive industry.”

Workers at the plant will produce both gas-powered and electric vehicles.

Isuzu’s total investment in the plant (including land, building, tooling, and equipment) is expected to equal approximately $280 million, according to the Isuzu release.

The plant will have a production capacity of 50,000 units by 2030 and will initially produce Isuzu N-Series Gas, N-Series Electric, and F-Series Diesel trucks.

Initial assembly operations will begin in 2027 and expand in 2028 when the plant is expected to employ more than 700 people.

The size of the Greenville plant will enable Isuzu to consolidate all production-related operations—KD storage and processing, parts storage, vehicle production, and PIO operations—under one roof, streamlining processes and improving efficiency, according to the Isuzu news release.

The campus also has sufficient acreage to store all completed trucks at a single site.

Isuzu will provide information about job opportunities in the months to come.

– Baker Maultsby initially reported this story.

– A.J. Jackson covers business, the food & dining scene and downtown culture for The Greenville News. Contact him by email at [email protected], and follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @ajhappened. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers..

GREENVILLE — An over-the-counter pharmaceuticals manufacturer will lay off 114 workers from its Piedmont factory by the end of October. It’s the company’s second round of layoffs in South Carolina in less than a year.

PL Developments, a New York-based company, gave notice about the layoffs on Aug. 29, according to the South Carolina WARN Act report.

Charles Cain, general counsel and chief administrative officer, said the layoffs were from the company restructuring its shifts to run its machines more efficiently.

“Like many pharmaceutical manufacturers in America right now, we have been impacted by an overall decline in consumer demand,” Cain said. “We're still seeing strong demand for our core products, including the first aid products and the other products we make there at the Piedmont facility.”

Since 2017, PL Developments has operated out of a 200,000 square-foot space off U.S. Route 25, near Interstate 185. It makes a host of over-the-counter products and first aid items that it sells to private label brands — also known as generic or store brands — and has factories in New York, California and Florida.

With the layoffs, PL Developments has eliminated weekend shifts and laid off those workers. But Cain said they are creating 50 more positions for a third shift that will be added on weekdays.

“The nature of these pharmaceutical manufacturing machines is that they're more efficient if they run 24 hours a day, because we don't have to stop and start and clean the machines in between shifts and things like that,” Cain said.

All told, those 114 workers will still be laid off. If they are interested in the weekday third shift, they must reapply.

“If our demand picks up early next year, as we're anticipating, then we would have the opportunity to add more positions on a weekend shift again,” Cain said.

The move comes on the heels of PL Developments closing its Clinton factory in January, laying off 113 workers. That decision was made as part of a “strategic realignment” of the company’s liquids packaging department, which included significant investments in expanding capacity and improving productivity at two other locations: the Piedmont factory and a California factory.

When PL Developments opened its Piedmont factory, state leaders applauded the move. It promised to invest $45 million and create 450 new jobs. Along with the Piedmont location, the company has two distribution centers off Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County.