The governor’s office announced the addition of Loba-Wakol to the county Thursday, and officials are excited about the possibility for jobs in the county.
Wadesboro Mayor Bill Thacker said that he is very excited for the new addition.
Loba-Wakol is a supplier of adhesives and finishes to the wood and resilient flooring industry, is relocating and expanding its North American headquarters from Charlotte to Wadesboro, creating 24 new jobs and investing $6.6 million.
Loba-Wakol looked at more than 65 buildings in the Carolinas before choosing Wadesboro, according to John Marek, the Anson Economic Development Partnership executive director.
“We have been working with the EDPNC and the company on this project since late last year,” Marek said. “We felt we had an available building that was a good fit, but knew it was very competitive across two states. We absolutely needed Anson County and the town of Wadesboro to step up and help us close the deal and they did.”
Marek also said the county worked with Loba-Wakol’s staff to resolve any issues that came up.
The deal with Loba-Wakol was known as Project Compounder throughout the pre-deal months. The company was awarded $143,000 in industrial tax grants by the Anson County commissioners and a $110,000 industrial tax grant by the town of Wadesboro. Marek said his group offered a $20,000 grant to assist the company with necessary upgrades to the building, which was formerly a JJ Haines distribution facility.
“When Haines moved their warehousing operations from Anson County in 2018, there was concern the building, which is located on a highly visible stretch of U.S. Highway 74, would remain vacant for a long time, but quality buildings in outstanding locations don’t stay on the market, and here we are just a year later with this great announcement,” Marek said. “We are also pleased to announce that a co-location deal has been struck between Haines and Loba-Wakol that will allow all 40 Haines employees currently on site to continue to work from the facility for the foreseeable future.”
Marek said the company will use the headquarters for training, including 16 people from the Charlotte building that will trasfer to Wadesboro. He also said that having the headquarters in the county on U.S. 74 will be a nice look for people traveling through Anson, coming from the Monroe and Charlotte area.
“Losing Haines was a big blow to us,” Thacker said. “We’re looking forward to what the company is going to do, and having jobs for Anson County.”
The average annual wage of the new jobs will be $43,750, compared to the countywide average wage of $33,358.
“These are good jobs that will improve the standard of living for two dozen families in our community,” said Ross Streater, chairman of the Anson County commissioners, “and along with the Borgstena announcement last week,and the other announcements our economic development organization has made since the first of the year, shows that Anson County is moving in the right direction and gaining momentum.”