Staff Writer

“Existing business and industry is the backbone of any local economy,” says Tiffany Harrison, the director of Economic Development for Fairfield County.

That is why she led a tour of four industries for Fairfield County Council members last month.

Fairfield County Council Chairman David Ferguson said, “I wanted my council to know what was going on.”

This was the “first of many tours” said Harrison which “provided an opportunity for County Council members and business leaders to exchange ideas and information, strengthen existing relationships and in some cases, build new ones.”

Council member Kamau Marcharia said, “I hope that we will continue this dialogue. I would like to see us build cooperation so that we can begin to provide more training and support to residents of Fairfield County to access the available jobs.

This is especially important as our economy grows and the expansion of the nuclear plant will be an opportunity for many residents who are unemployed or under-employed to move into living wage jobs.”

“Looking to the future” Harrison said is something the County is doing.

She sees Fairfield County’s proximity to the I-77 corridor as a “prime place of growth” since it is between northern expansion of Columbia and the southern expansion of Charlotte.

The four industries on this first tour were Elite ES, Isola USA, Performance Fibers Group and Guardian Fiberglass.

Elite ES (Electronic Systems) is one of the examples Harrison gives of a company that came to Fairfield County because it had a building available at the time they needed one (the old Skate World Building) and it was relatively close to their customer in Newberry (Caterpillar).

Since Fairfield County had the building, the county got the new company which now employs 50 people.

Council Member Mary Lynn Kinley noted that Elite ES hopes to “double and triple” its workforce in the next year.

Kinley added that Elite ES opened the plant in the US because it was “too expensive to ship (to their American customers) from Ireland”, which is where the company is from.

Council Member Eddie Branham commented that he was “glad to see employees from Fairfield County.”

Harrison explains that because new industry is often looking for available buildings, the county’s speculative building at the Walter B. Brown II Industrial Park shows prospective business that Fairfield County is “ready to play ball.”

She add that the new building will “get us in the game.”

County Council approved the building of the 50,000 square foot (expandable to 125,000 square foot) building in October of 2007. It was completed last month and there has been “a lot of interest” in the building by prospective industry, Harrison said.

Another industry that council visited on the tour was Isola USA which as been producing copper clad laminates at the Walter B. Brown Industrial Park (Phase I) since 1997.

Harrison said that “when Plastech closed earlier this year, Isola was one of the first, of many, local industry to offer employment opportunities to the affected workers. The company currently employs approximately 170 people.”

The tour also included Performance Fibers Group located in the “Old Mill”and employs more than 200 people. They acquired Invista earlier this year.

Guardian Fiberglass began production in early 2007 in the old Mack Truck facility and employs around 100 people.

As the county continues to work with existing business, Harrison wants new industry to know that Fairfield County is “here to do business and are serious about it.”

Harrison states that the Fairfield County Economic Development is a department of the county government whose mission is to “create quality jobs, increase the per capita income of the residents of the county, and broaden the Fairfield county tax base.”

She continues that “the department works closely with existing business and industry and assists with providing access to the tools that they need to remain competitive in the global marketplace, ensuring that they will be successful and continue to grow in Fairfield County.

The department also works with prospective business and industry to facilitate new investment and job creation in the county.”