Economic Climate Nurtures a Broad Range of Businesses
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If variety is the spice of life, Johnston County’s business community is exploding with flavor.
Products range from Bright Leaf hot dogs and award-winning pound cakes to high-tech homeland security equipment and specialized medicines.
Printed circuit boards and other electronic devices are manufactured at Carolina Electronic Assemblers in Smithfield.
“We develop very specialized high technology,” says Steve Yauch, the company’s chief executive officer. “Most of our clients are in the medical field or homeland security.”
Carolina Electronic Assemblers makes circuit boards for use by other manufacturers and also turns out finished products such as electronic nurse’s stations for hospital rooms.
Focusing on the high-tech segment of the market has helped the company grow, even as other U.S. manufacturers have moved operations overseas, Yauch says.
“When I bought the company in 2000, it had six employees,” he says. “Now we have 70 employees and have doubled our sales every year.”
Also expanding is Shooting Star Bread Co. and its sister company, The Pound Cake Co., both founded by Johnston County native Jan Matthews-Hodges. Matthews-Hodges, a former legal assistant, started her business as a part-time endeavor, making pound cakes she perfected in state fair baking competitions.
In 2007, she partnered with lawyer Bobby Jenkins to take the operation full time, working in the cafeteria of her former elementary school in Benson. The bakery now sells cakes, cupcakes and cookies under The Pound Cake Co. name and also provides store-branded items such as garlic knot rolls to The Fresh Market, Lowes Foods and other retailers through the Shooting Star subsidiary.
“We are in the process of installing equipment in the 18,000-square-foot former middle school on the same campus as our existing bakery,” Hodges says.
When the expansion is finished, the company’s payroll will grow from 18 full- and part-time workers to about 50 employees.
Another food manufacturer, Carolina Packers, has been providing hot dogs, bologna and other meat products since 1941.
Carolina Packers is best known for its bright-red Bright Leaf brand hot dogs, says General Manager Kent Denning.
“We’ve had some new things come along, but the primary products have stayed the same: hot dogs, smoked sausage and bologna,” Denning says.
About 90 employees work at the facility in Smithfield, where plans for expansion are under development.
“We’re hoping, luck be with us, to have a new facility built at the same location in the future,” he says.
Developing new products for the North Carolina market can be a challenge.
“With all the growth around here and all the new people, tastes have become more diverse,” Denning says. “It’s got us thinking about some new things, such as brats. We’re hoping to have some new products out next year.”
Sysco Transportation System in Selma is one of 177 Sysco locations throughout North America. The $52 million facility opened in 2006 and now employs about 350 workers in warehouse, trucking and sales positions. Local clients include Duke University in Durham and Rex Hospital in Raleigh, along with dozens of independent area restaurants.
Talecris Biotherapeutics Inc., a global biotechnology company, has about 1,400 employees in Clayton working to develop and manufacture treatments for people with life-threatening disorders.
Novo Nordisk Pharmaceuticals, another biomedical company, was named one of the 100 best companies to work for by Fortune magazine.
The Clayton facility employs about 600 workers who inspect and package medical products such as the FlexPen, a disposable insulin device.
Story by Renee Elder
