June 5, 2024
DAVISVILLE – A Japanese company is interested in starting work in West Virginia, which many local and state officials say will foster foreign relations and provide a foundation for long-term development.
About 30 state officials, network members and business leaders gathered Tuesday morning in Davisville at the site where SOMAR North America Corp. It will install a production facility that will first employ another 25 people with prospects for expansion and expansion in the future.
“This is a wonderful day for us,” said Keith Burdette, Zone President of the West Virginia Polymer Alliance. “This is a day that has been celebrated for a long time to bring a major Japanese company to West Virginia and here to Wood County. “
The new facility is located in the Polymer Alliance Zone Industrial Park in Davisville, using the 80,000-square-foot former Pactiv building, which was a plastic recycling facility, located at 336 Polymer Way in Davisville.
SOMAR has a wide range of products and the location will be used to manufacture an epoxy resin product used in the automotive sector for electric motors, electric vehicle motors and hybrid cars, officials said.
Mitch Carmichael, secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, spoke about the increased growth, jobs, and opportunities this facility will bring to the rest of West Virginians, as well as the foreign relations this allocation is helping to foster with Japan.
“We are honored to welcome them here to establish their fourth plant in the world, right here in Davisville, West Virginia,” he said. “To employ West Virginians and create wonderful prosperity and opportunity not only for their businesses but also for West Virginia. . . . and the price that the citizens of West Virginia will bring to the enterprise. “
Partnerships with more than 20 in Japan have created more than 4,000 jobs in West Virginia, Carmichael said.
SOMAR Corp. President Futoshi Sotani, the third-generation leader of the company founded by his grandfather in 1948, said the company is expanding in the United States and hopes to increase consumer demand for its products, which are also used in iPhones and semiconductors, as well as cosmetics. biotechnology and much more.
“In the next few years, we’re going to have demands from our customers,” Sotani said.
He spoke of other sites in the U. S. He learned about how West Virginia officials helped him decide on the Davisville site.
SOMAR North America Corp. President Hideki Asano spoke of the crossing of several states and cities before speaking at the Davisville site. Its proximity to its clientele in the American Midwest also motivated the choice of this site.
“Our consumers are very close,” he said. It’s the geographic hub for our consumers, which is one thing. “
Asano also talked about the state and local progression officials who worked to get them to come to Davisville and the efforts they made to show how the facility is compatible with the company.
“That’s what we do here,” he said.
The plant will first have 25 workers with long-term growth prospects in the event of growth.
Asano said renovation paints on the building are expected to be completed by the end of September and the device is expected to begin in October in hopes of starting to make prototype fabrics to display to customers. It will be in full production until September 2025.
Renovation work has been underway for more than a month.
“I can’t wait to be a component of the network and bring good luck,” Asano said.
Although she was unable to attend the rally in Davisville on Tuesday, Lindsey Piersol, executive director of Wood County Development, said production has played an important role in Wood County.
“We are thrilled to welcome SOMAR to our community,” he said. “This assignment has taken approximately one year in the selection process and we appreciate the corporate representatives and everyone who worked together to achieve this glorious undertaking in West Virginia. “
Carmichael said the announcement is another indication of the state’s economic success, as other people around the West Virginia world “are in a position to do business. “
“West Virginia presents a wonderful pricing proposition for corporations that distribute North America,” he said. We are within a 500-mile radius where approximately 50% of the U. S. population and 30% of the Canadian population live.
“We are in an ideal central location, we have a wonderful shipping formula and we have other people who are ready, willing and to work. West Virginia has one of the most unwavering workforces in America. This is a testament to the fact that once a business sets up shop here, it starts to scale and grow and has more opportunities. That’s what’s going to happen here.
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