NY Firm to Open South Carolina Plant

New York-based First Quality Enterprises has announced plans to open a new paper products plant in Anderson County, South Carolina.  The plant could eventually employ 1,000 people in the working-class county.

With an unemployment rate over 12 percent, South Carolina has been hit hard by current recession.  News of the potential new jobs was greeted enthusiastically by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who called the new plant “Good news in bad times.”

The first 200 hires will be made over the summer, with production employees being paid over $17 per hour  and engineers being paid an unspecified higher wage.

Quality Enterprises plans to convert a former BASF chemical plant into several smaller buildings, each of which will make products ranging from paper towels to diapers.