Atlas Copco has opened a new 200,000-square-foot facility on Celriver Road in Rock Hill, marking the Swedish manufacturer's fifth location in the city and bringing about 100 new jobs with it. The company held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday to celebrate the new site, known as Next USA, which will house operations for Atlas Copco Compressors, Edmac, BeaconMedaes and OriginAir.
A Fifth Address in Three Decades
The hiring plan was confirmed by Philippe Ernens, as reported by the Post and Courier, which detailed the new site and its roughly 100 planned positions. Atlas Copco is a Swedish-based manufacturer with plants scattered across the United States, and the Celriver Road facility represents its fifth Rock Hill location in 30 years, according to the same report. Rock Hill Mayor John Gettys recalled the company's arrival in the city back in 1997, tracing a local footprint that now spans multiple buildings and business lines.
Gettys said the company chose Rock Hill for its international airport, interstate access, skilled workforce, training opportunities and welcoming community. He also pointed to Atlas Copco's earlier expansion at the Lowenstein Building near downtown Rock Hill, saying the investment brought employees downtown and helped transform the area into a vibrant community. The Lowenstein Building itself was a former textile mill repurposed after the textile industry declined in the 1990s.
Deep Roots in York County Manufacturing
The Lowenstein Building office space, which opened as the company's identified U.S. headquarters location, covered about 38,000 square feet and was set up to host 150 Atlas Copco employees, a majority of whom were hired locally, according to heraldonline.com. That followed the company's multiple corporate, industrial and manufacturing locations spread throughout Charlotte and Rock Hill, per Atlas Copco's own jobs page. The company now has about 1,000 employees throughout the Carolinas, and Atlas Copco Power Technique alone employs more than 400 people at its Paragon Way operation.
Atlas Copco Power Technique ranks among York County's top five manufacturers, according to the York County Economic Development office. That standing fits into a broader regional picture: York County's manufacturing industry employs nearly 12,000 people, representing 12% of the county's workforce, and the average manufacturing wage there is nearly $60,000 per year, per the county's own economic development data at yorkcountyed.com.
Growth Built on Prior Expansions
The Paragon Way campus has been central to Atlas Copco's Rock Hill growth for years. The company celebrated the grand opening of its $25 million, 197,000-square-foot production facility there in May 2017, a plant built in Riverwalk Business Park to support the North American construction market and one that replaced the company's original facility at Waterford Business Park, according to yorkcountyed.com. That 1059 Paragon Way plant employed more than 300 people at its opening.
The South Carolina Department of Commerce had described the planned facility as a 180,000-square-foot LEED-certified manufacturing and office building tied to a $20 million investment, with the Coordinating Council for Economic Development approving job development credits related to the project, the state agency noted on sccommerce.com. The move shifted the company's Medical Gas Solutions Division along with production and assembly for its U.S. Construction Technique into the Riverwalk Business Park site.
Inside the Paragon Way Operation
Today the 197,000-square-foot Paragon Way facility is home to more than 400 employees. Products built there include mobile compressors, generators and a wide range of medical equipment, the company has said. Atlas Copco also installed 2,397 roof-mounted solar panels at Paragon Way, an upgrade expected to provide roughly 57% of the facility's energy and save about 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The Rock Hill site is part of Atlas Copco's broader operations. The facility is LEED Silver certified, runs on 100% renewable energy and is landfill-free. Atlas Copco's workforce is 27% female, with employees representing 20 different countries.
Atlas Copco also leased space at Rock Hill Commerce Center for manufacturing, according to the Charlotte Business Journal. Taken together with the new Next USA facility, the string of leases and builds underscores how central Rock Hill has become to Atlas Copco's U.S. operations since the company first set up shop in the city in 1997.
