International pharmaceutical and aerospace firms sound like companies found in the Research Triangle Park.
But they have operated in Rocky Mount for decades.

Company officials with Honeywell Aerospace and Hospira say Rocky Mount has the work force and location they need to continue operating profitable plants.

The companies try to hire Rocky Mount residents, but often have to recruit from Raleigh and Greenville. Honeywell Aerospace on North Wesleyan Boulevard manufactures civil and military avionics and aerospace products.

The key to bringing in more companies like it is cultivating a better educated work force that is attractive to companies, said Chris Celtruda, who worked for Honeywell International from 2003 to 2007 as supply chain manager. He is among officials with local companies who said there have been challenges finding local people who have the skills to step in and do the job.

“When I first got there, we had a pretty high recruitment (rate for workers),” Celtruda said. “We were recruiting people out of Atlanta and out of Charlotte and clearly taking advantage of N.C. State and UNC for college grads and interns. I did see that improve over time. But we also found that we were having to hire a lot of folks in the Raleigh area.”

The Rocky Mount area has a lot going for it, he said, with a good standard of living in Eastern North Carolina and close proximity to Raleigh and the coastline.

“I think logistically you can’t say enough about the location being halfway between the Research Triangle park in Raleigh and East Carolina University, and even the Global TransPark down in Kinston. There is a real advantage,’” Celtruda said.

The community’s focus needs to be on developing the work force and the infrastructure that companies need, he said.

“You’ve got to transform the labor force,” he said. “Transforming a labor work force is going to involve having the level of technical talent to manage a business like a Honeywell or like a Cummins, and that type of talent is really going to have to have a two- or four-year degree. I think you’ve got to start early. You’ve got to get into the elementary schools, middle schools, the high schools and really stress the math, the science and the leadership skills.”

He said he has been impressed with the curriculum offered at Nash and Edgecombe community colleges recently.

“I think today there is a pretty sizeable output from the two-year degree program,” he said. “I think the last missing piece here is really the four-year degree level.”

East Carolina University and others in the Triangle area have done a good job in training people, he said.

“But you need a local pipeline of engineering and business-type talent to run those businesses,” he said.

The business community needs to step up to the plate in the effort, Celtruda said.

“I think a big part of it is getting the businesses more involved in the schools and coming in and presenting what they do,” he said. “I think some of it has to be experiencial learning. I’m not quite sure there is a robust enough effort to get the students out into internship or work-study type roles so that there is an interest level. I definitely think there has to be an increased level of exposure of these types of careers at all levels of schools.”
When he worked at Honeywell in Rocky Mount up until 2007, he saw significant improvement in the company’s ability to fill technical positions from the local labor force.

“I saw big progress,” he said.

Celtruda said government needs to step up to the plate as well to lure other companies like Honeywell.

“North Carolina has done good things with tax incentives and credits for worker training,” he said. “I clearly believe for the right companies, local governments have got to offer incentives. You are competing against a lot of other regions that are facing the same predicament in trying to employ their people.”
Hospira is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company that has operated a plant in Rocky Mount for four decades.

“It’s a great facility,” said Jonathan Waldron, vice president of the company’s Rocky Mount operations. “We have employees that are truly exceptional. We have had a great experience here. The fact we have been here for 40 years should be significant.”

He said the company can find qualified employees within a 60-mile radius. “With the types of high-technology products we make, we are looking for specific skill sets,” he said. “When we can, we hire from the Rocky Mount area. When we can’t, we go outside. We have a dedicated and well-trained work force which is essential for the type of highly regulated business that we are in. It’s also a work force of high integrity with an excellent work ethic.”

He said the company is located close enough to Raleigh, Wilson and Greenville in the event it needs to recruit workers with more technical expertise.

The location and road network of Rocky Mount also is a plus, he said.

“We’re centrally located on the East Coast with great access to U.S. 64 and Interstate 95,” he Waldron said.
Honeywell and Hospira are just a few of the advanced manufacturing companies that continue to do business in the Twin Counties.

QVC, a home shopping network, recently celebrated its 10th anniversary operating a distribution center in Rocky Mount.

Last August, Gov. Bev Perdue came to Tarboro to celebrate Sara Lee’s announcement of its plans to hire 45 new full-time workers as part of an $11 million expansion to the company’s plant, which employs more than 700 workers. Perdue noted that no tax dollars or tax breaks were involved in the company’s decision.

“None of us had to beg and plead” for Sara Lee to come to its decision, the governor said.
In a prepared statement, Tarboro Sara Lee Plant Manager Fred Winner said there are several reasons for that plant’s success.

“Tarboro, through its civic leadership, has been a proactive business partner throughout Sara Lee’s history in North Carolina,” he said. “The availability of a qualified labor force has also benefited us during expansions at the plant over the years.”

Cummins Rocky Mount Engine Plant, which recently produced its 3 millionth engine, has been building engines since 1983. The plant was originally part of a joint venture with CNH Global LLC called Consolidated Diesel Co. The engines built here are used in agricultural, construction, automotive, marine and generator applications.

In a prepared statement, plant manager Ken Anderson praised the area.

“Some of the factors that have helped sustain our investment in the Rocky Mount area include a flexible, and capable of work force,” he said. “Being able to work in a flexible environment that allows us to meet the needs of our customers is critical for a company like ours. It allows us to respond to the ebb and flow that we see in demand for the engines we make here.”

He added that Cummins’ training programs enable the company to recruit and maintain a quality work force.
Access to a robust transportation infrastructure makes Rocky Mount a good place for Cummins to do business, Anderson said.

Rocky Mount also is attractive to grocery distribution companies. Meadow Brook Meat, also known as MBM Corp., operates the headquarters for one of the largest food distribution companies in the country in Rocky Mount. Employing hundreds of local employees, the restaurant distributor delivers food to companies like Burger King, Red Lobster and Olive Garden. McLane Rocky Mount operates a grocery distribution center in Battleboro.

Economic development officials are trying to remind people of these success stories as officials discuss ways to reinvent the Rocky Mount economy. The discussion comes at a time when the area has the highest unemployment rate in the state in the latetst figures and has lost thousands of jobs due to an exodus of textile plants overseas and the mechanization of the tobacco industry.

John Gessaman, president and CEO of the Carolinas Gateway Partnership, a private-public industrial recruitment agency, credits the staying power of firms like Honeywell and Hospira to a “very favorable business climate statewide and locally.”

He said the area is attractive to companies because it non-union and offers low taxes and a labor pool that is suited to companies’ plans.

“I have to add there are training programs available at the community colleges that can train and retrain workers to do jobs required,” he said.

Generally speaking, companies are able to get the workers they need, Gessaman said.

“Now, there are regional and national global shortages of certain skills, and that’s always a challenge for particular skills,” he said. “We’re faced with those same challenges. But the fact companies have stayed here and have been successful is a very good statement about our overall business climate.”