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As Honda and McCall Farms announced plans for expansions, as the retail sector and hospitality industry saw steady growth and as downtown continued to transform, there was still an outlier to all the positive developments: What would happen to Roche Carolina after company officials announced last fall that its Florence operation and three sister sites in Europe were up for sale?

Joe W. King certainly thinks 2016 was a good year. As the executive director of Florence County Progress, he said he doesn’t want to view one aspect of the always in flux world of economic development – Patheon coming to town – as the “highlight” of the year, though he’s quick to acknowledge “it’s big news.”

“And I think Patheon is a good corporate citizen and will bring international attention to Florence,” he said, “which is a great thing.”

Without Patheon stepping in, it was likely Roche’s plant would have been mothballed, he said.

In his line of work, King is careful to give plenty of attention to existing industry and sees a trio of big announcements on the horizon – one probably by the end of the first quarter and the other two in the second quarter of 2017.

“I think ’16 was good and I think ’17 will be as good,” he said, based on “what we have in the pipeline, the inquiries we’re getting.”

With pent-up demand and a pending change in leadership in our nation’s capital, King thinks conditions are ripe for economic growth.

“You’re going to see things happen,” he said.

Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce President Mike Miller sees the continued expansion of the hospitality industry and views Patheon’s deal with Roche as “more of a comforting thing.”

“It could’ve been bad news,” he said.”

SCNow Web Artcle – BUSINESS YEAR IN REVIEW: Success includes downtown development, plant expansions

Pharmaceutical developer and manufacturer Patheon announced Monday it has signed an agreement to take over the 300,000-square-foot facility situated on 1,100 acres along Old Marion Highway.

Pete Mazzaroni, Roche Carolina’s director of communications, said the deal is expected to be closed “in 30 or so days, plus or minus.” The target date of completion is toward the end of January. The current workforce is approximately 200 people, he said. That number has trended down since a Nov. 12, 2015, announcement from Roche of an impending restructuring that put 270 jobs in limbo. This summer, company officials said the Florence facility would close by 2019 as it sought to divest of that property and three similar sites in Europe. When officials said that in late June, there were 220 people working at the plant.

Mazzaroni said the mood among the workforce is “very positive.”

“The fact is that the goal was to find a reputable buyer to keep the site running and keep as many jobs as possible,” he said. “We look forward to integrating the two companies. Clearly this is good news for the community in keeping the site operational with as many jobs as possible. We were going to ramp down to closure. Obviously those plans have changed as we’ve achieved our primary objective.”

With U.S. headquarters in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and European headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, Patheon touts $1.8 billion in revenue for 2015 and employs 8,000 people in 26 locations around the globe.

“As the only end-to-end provider of pharma development and manufacturing services, Patheon is uniquely positioned to integrate this new site into our global network and quickly leverage the capabilities with existing and new clients,” James Mullen, Patheon’s CEO, said in the news release. “The company will benefit from the additional North American API (active pharmaceutical ingredients) capacity and adds a state-of-the-art facility with approximately 200 scientific and manufacturing professionals.”

S.C. Sen. Hugh K. Leatherman Sr., R-Florence said Monday he is “absolutely elated” at the news, calling Patheon “a terrific company,” and speculated that there will be “some capital expenditures out there.”

“And from what I understand, they pay good wages and they’re a good company to work for,” he said. “It’s the best thing that could happen to us.”

Florence County Councilman James Schofield said he feels good about Patheon taking over the Florence facility.”

SCNow Web Article – Pharmaceutical company taking over Roche facility