Charlotte area lands 1,200-job project after NC OKs incentives for Florida company
With several economic incentive packages locked down, a Fortune 500 company chose Rowan County for its next expansion destination, investing $264 million into a manufacturing facility and creating nearly 1,200 jobs.
Jabil Inc., a manufacturing firm, will be expanding into the Salisbury area next year after the N.C. Economic Investment Committee approved incentives to entice the company to build in the region, Gov. Josh Stein announced in a news release Monday afternoon.
The state offered up to $11.2 million in payroll tax benefits through a job development investment grant if Jabil hires 1,181 workers and invests $264 million at a facility in Rowan County by the end of 2030. The state also approved more than $7 million to help train Jabil workers for the site.
Rowan County is also expected to offer an incentive worth $2.3 million.
A location in Florida, where Jabil is based, was also offering the firm its own incentives including tax exemptions, capital investment and training assistance to secure this facility. In the end, Jabil chose Rowan County.
“We welcome Jabil’s expansion, and we are committed to further developing the largest manufacturing workforce in the Southeast and the business-friendly climate they need for this next phase of growth,” Stein said in the release.
Jabil expansion plans
Founded in 1966, Jabil has a market capitalization above $23 billion. It currently employs close to 1,000 people in the state at its Asheville, Hendersonville and Mebane facilities. The company asked, and the staff agreed, to not consider these existing employees as part of the JDIG terms because they perform different operations.
The firm’s expansion is part of a $500 million plan to grow in the Southeast to support cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
The Jabil factory in Rowan County will focus on manufacturing data center hardware like liquid cooling enclosures and server racks, a growing market in the state. North Carolina has seen a lot of growth in data center-related projects in recent years, including in the Charlotte region.
Average wages for the Jabil jobs are expected to be at least $62,000.
The projected 1,181 jobs would make Jabil the state’s second-largest hiring announcement of the year. Earlier in June, the aviation startup JetZero promised to create more than 14,500 jobs at a future facility in Greensboro.
What’s next for the Jabil project
The seat of Rowan County, Salisbury is a city of about 37,000 people 45 miles northeast of Charlotte. In December, a Vietnamese manufacturer also chose Salisbury as its first expansion site in the U.S.
Ever Home Plastics LLC, a subsidiary of Vacane Home Concepts Inc., planned to invest $3.65 million in the city and create 46 jobs over four years.
Rowan County officials said Jabil will be taking over the former Gildan building in Granite Industrial Park. Operations are expected to begin in mid-2026.
This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 12:17 PM.
