Johnston County is getting a serious cleanroom upgrade. AdvanceTEC, the cleanroom manufacturer now part of France-based Equans, is expanding its Clayton plant and adding roughly 160 jobs that the company says will pay an average of about $90,000 a year. The roughly $7.5 million project will nearly double AdvanceTEC’s local headcount and add tens of thousands of square feet of production space to the campus, an expansion county and company leaders celebrated at a ground-breaking ceremony earlier this month.
French Parent Brings Manufacturing Muscle To Clayton
The expansion will also launch U.S. operations for Equans sister company Pierre Guérin and will add just over 32,000 square feet to AdvanceTEC’s existing plant, county economic development officials said. The investment is slated to boost AdvanceTEC’s local workforce from roughly 168 employees to about 328 and shore up high-precision manufacturing capacity in the county, according to Johnston County Economic Development.
New Space, Tight Timeline And Big Orders
AdvanceTEC currently operates a roughly 98,000-square-foot plant on about 12 acres off U.S. Highway 70 Business between Clayton and Smithfield, and Goldsboro-based Jackson Builders is set to handle construction of the addition. Officials say the work should wrap up by next summer so Pierre Guérin can start on a recently awarded $26 million manufacturing order, JoCo Report reported.
What The Jobs Look Like And How Much They Pay
The 160 new roles will cover fabrication, process-equipment assembly and engineering, with average annual pay around $90,000, as reported by Triangle Business Journal. The companies also plan to partner with Johnston Community College on customized skills training to feed the hiring pipeline, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership says.
Why Johnston County Landed The Deal
Local leaders say the investment reinforces Johnston County’s rise as a life-sciences and advanced-manufacturing hub within the Research Triangle, and they point out the county has drawn other foreign direct investment in recent years. “It’s a great day for your company but it’s a great day for the citizens here in the county,” Johnston County Commission Chairman Patrick Harris said in remarks included by the county economic office. The move follows AdvanceTEC’s acquisition by Equans in September 2025, which the parent company says has helped the firm win larger contracts and bring international partners to North Carolina, according to Equans.
AdvanceTEC first announced plans for a presence in Johnston County in 2021 and has expanded rapidly since the Equans acquisition, county and company materials say. County officials and company representatives said hiring and application details will roll out as construction progresses and training partnerships are finalized. For initial reporting on this expansion see Triangle Business Journal.
