Samsung’s sprawling laundry plant in Newbury County, S.C., supports over 1,500 local jobs.
Company cites ‘Samsung effect’ on local economy
YSN Staff
It didn’t take long for a litany of new business opportunities to follow the announcement in 2016 of a Samsung manufacturing facility coming to Newberry County, S.C.
Since then, the sprawling laundry complex has generated nearly $500 million in capital investment for the region and presently supports over 1,500 jobs for local residents as part of its ongoing operations, in what the company calls “the Samsung effect.”
“When SEHA [Samsung Electronics Home Appliances] came, we saw hotels being built and new restaurants. The community has just exploded,” said Bobby Stevens, SEHA production manager. “Everywhere you turn you have new housing developments coming, new restaurants are coming, so the whole community is growing as a whole.”
Among the town’s beneficiaries is Figaro the Dining Room. The restaurant, located in downtown Newberry, is a regular destination for Samsung employees and a frequent provider of catering services for the company. “With these bigger corporations like Samsung coming in, they’re bringing in good-paying jobs which makes the economy and the town better,” said Executive Chef John Worthington. “We need those plant jobs to help push things along.”
The Newberry facility was Samsung’s first U.S.-based manufacturing site for home appliances. Built in a retrofitted Caterpillar plant, the factory had produced more than 4 million washers by its fifth anniversary last year.
See: Samsung Celebrates 5th Year of U.S. Appliance Production
