Gov. Bev Perdue today announced that CertainTeed Roofing, a leading North American manufacturer of asphalt roofing products, will build a new rail unloading and storage facility in Granville County. The company plans to create 10 jobs and invest $20 million during the next three years in Oxford. The project was made possible in part by a $30,000 grant from the One North Carolina Fund.
“Companies like CertainTeed Roofing want to set up shop in North Carolina because our path to the future is clear,” said Gov. Bev Perdue. “We have invested in education, transportation and infrastructure to build a well-trained workforce and an environment where businesses can thrive. That’s why North Carolina continues to earn top business rankings, such as CNBC recently moving us from 4th place to the No. 3 top state for doing business.”
CertainTeed Roofing is a subsidiary of CertainTeed Corporation, a leading North American manufacturer of interior and exterior building products and is a subsidiary of French-based Saint-Gobain, the world’s largest building materials company. CertainTeed currently employs 503 people in North Carolina, including 266 Roofing employees in Granville County. The company will build a new railcar unloading and storage facility in Oxford that will enable the company to get asphalt from other sources while increasing production of residential asphalt roofing shingles.
Salaries will vary by job function, but the average annual wage for the new jobs will be $63,800 plus benefits. The Granville County average annual wage is $34,112.
“Our thanks to Governor Perdue, the One North Carolina Fund, the town of Oxford and Granville County for assisting us in this valuable project,” says George Wattman, Vice President of Operations for CertainTeed Roofing. “We have been a proud member of the Oxford community for well over 25 years and we have been fortunate to be able to attract quality employees from the local community and Granville County.”
The One NC Fund provides financial assistance, through local governments, to attract business projects that will stimulate economic activity and create new jobs in the state. Companies receive no money up front and must meet job creation and investment performance standards to qualify for grant funds. These grants also require and are contingent upon local matches.
“We fought this year to try and protect our investments in education, because those investments are the seeds from which job announcements like CertainTeed grow,” said Sen. Doug Berger, of Youngsville. “Companies want to move to North Carolina because they know they’ll find an educated, skilled workforce.”
“Companies like CertainTeed want to grow, and they know innovation is essential to doing that,” said Rep. Jim Crawford, of Oxford. “North Carolina has a long record of innovative success that has built a world class university system, created the Research Triangle Park and created a business climate that is the envy of every other state.”
North Carolina continues to have a top-ranked business climate. Through Gov. Perdue’s JobsNOW initiative, the state works aggressively to create jobs, train and retrain its workforce, and lay the foundation for a strong and sustainable economic future.
Through use of the One NC Fund, more than 50,000 jobs and $9 billion in investment have been created since 2001. Other partners that helped with this project include: the N.C. Department of Commerce, N.C. Community Colleges, the N.C. Department of Transportation, Progress Energy, the Town of Oxford and Granville County.
For more information about CertainTeed, including job opportunities, go to www.certainteed.com.