Meter Bearing's CEO returns to the Lowcountry
Resource from: colletontoday.com Likes:219
Apr 03,2015
Vittorio Musso, president and CEO of Meter Bearings Group, made the trip from Robassomero, Torino, Italy, to Walterboro last week as the company enters the home stretch in establishing a manufacturing presence in the United States.
Among the items on Musso’s to-do list during his two-day trip to Walterboro was a visit to the Colleton County Career Center and the building on Anderson Road.
Musso said that the engineering firm that will handle the design of the infrastructure improvements to Meter’s plant have been put to work and soon contractors will be hired to make the alterations to the building.
Musso pointed out that the whole building will be retrofitted for its new use, but when the company begins operations, not all of the building will be put to work.
“I met with the people at the training school and interviewed some of the students that we could hire,” Musso said. “I met some interesting people. We continue to get support from the local community.”
It was state, regional and local support, Musso explains, that drew the family-owned company to Walterboro.
Musso said the company was exhibiting at a trade show in Germany when representatives from the South Carolina Department of Commerce visited their exhibition space and began talking about establishing a United States manufacturing presence in South Carolina.
“We did not have any idea of doing something in U.S. at that time,” Musso explained. After that conversation, “We started to think about it.”
Musso said he came to the Lowcountry “just to have a look.”
Members of the SouthernCarolina Alliance, the multi-county economic development organization, took Musso on a tour to visit buildings the company might be interested in using, in addition to its current manufacturing plants in Italy and China.
Colleton County Economic Development Director Heyward Horton said Musso was not interested in the first buildings he was shown. But after asking how he envisioned the perfect building, Horton decided Musso should see the Anderson Road building.
“It was mostly the people here that persuaded us,” Musso said. “We wanted to find a nice building and we found one in Walterboro.”
The deal was finalized during a dinner at the Cypress Restaurant in Charleston. It happened, Horton said, “because we had the right people at the table.”
Joining Musso and Horton at that closing dinner were Colleton County Finance Director Dennis Averkin, LCOG Workforce Development Director Hank Amundson, South Carolina Department of Commerce Project Manager Phillip Morgan and Sergio Fedelini, vice-president of Mediterranean Shipping Co., Inc., head of the company’s Mount Pleasant office, and Consul of Italy in South Carolina.
Averkin was asked to attend because he speaks Italian and had worked in Europe, Horton said.
Since deciding on establishing a plant in the United States, Musso added, they had a lot of other states call them. But the company was not swayed by the other suitors.
Musso said the specialized machinery built in Italy for the Anderson Road plant is set to arrive at the plant sometime in the late June. It is the same equipment used at the Italian facility.
“We should start hiring between June and July,” Musso said, “start production by the end of July, early August.”
The first project for the Anderson Road workers will be preparing bearing samples for a customer which have to be delivered by Oct. 1.
“Because we are producing in a new country, we have to present samples for approval,” Musso explained. “We have specifications that have to be met.”
Musso said the company “does every type of bearing that is not related to the automotive industry. We produce to customer order, so we develop the product or the customer tells us what the product should look like.”
Musso said the company will begin production with between seven and 10 employees and expects to have 50 employees at the building within five years.
The company will send over its quality control engineer and engineering manager to handle the training for the new employees. As the number of employees increase, the new hires will be trained by the existing members of the work staff.
Musso said the training currently being offered to potential employees at the Colleton County Career Center is meeting company’s expectations.
The training gives the candidates a good fundamental knowledge of the tool and die industry “that allows them to understand what we require,” Musso said.
“The best training will be when they start working here with the people we are bringing from Italy,” Musso explained.
Meter Bearing Group currently has about 10 U.S.-based customers. Musso sees the Anderson Road plant growing to meet the needs of those customers. He also anticipates the development of a U.S. facility will increase their business in the United States.
(colletontoday.com)
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1.The news above mentioned with detailed source are from internet.We are trying our best to assure they are accurate ,timely and safe so as to let bearing users and sellers read more related info.However, it doesn't mean we agree with any point of view referred in above contents and we are not responsible for the authenticity. If you want to publish the news,please note the source and you will be legally responsible for the news published.
2.All news edited and translated by us are specially noted the source"CBCC".
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