LIBERTY — IPSUM Technologies announced plans to invest $19.2 million to build what one company official calls a “factory of the future” at the Pickens County Commerce Park.
The announcement was made Wednesday morning at the Alliance Pickens office. It is expected to create 55 new jobs.
“We are really, really excited for the future that we are going to share with one another,” Alliance Pickens executive director Ray Farley said.
Co-chairman and president C. Ashley Heaton said his company focuses on advanced manufacturing for “aerospace, space, defense and the high-technology sectors.”
“We are dedicated to bringing the next generation of manufacturing, and Pickens (County) is our first location for the factory of the future,” Heaton said.
Co-chairman R.J. Singh said everything the company does is “mission-critical.”
“When you work in aerospace, lives depend on you,” he said. “So when you do things, you have to make sure you do the right thing.”
After exploring locations for more than nine months, a “chance visit” to Pickens County at the beginning of the year “ultimately led to this project,” he said.
Michael Haley, husband of former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, is a partner for the company.
“It’s good to be back in the Upstate,” he said. “There’s a lot of great pride in being able to put down some roots in God’s country.”
Haley said Pickens County offers “the right climate for what we plan on doing with this facility.”
“From the location, the affiliate companies in the area that they’ve already welcomed and the talent that starts with the (School District of Pickens County) career center and then on to the higher eds like the technical schools and also Clemson University, we not only see Pickens County as a support today but someone that is going to grow with us in the future,” he said.
Singh agreed.“We hope the career center grows with us,” he said.
During a special called meeting at the Alliance Pickens office, Pickens County Council unanimously passed third reading of a fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreement between the county and the company.
“It is a new day for us,” Heaton said. “We are very excited to be a part of this community.”
S.C. Department of Commerce senior project manager Jon Baggett said firms like IPSUM Technologies are turning the state into “a globally known manufacturing powerhouse.”
“Our reputation is starting to spread throughout the world,” he said. “We are leading the nation in the growth of manufacturing jobs.”
By Jason Evans
Pickens County Courier
