How an EV battery plant in Brunswick stacks up among the Wilmington area's top employers

Jamey Cross, Wilmington StarNews
·3 min read
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Commerce Minister Embassy of India Dr. Ajay Kumar talks to the crowd as officials with Epsilon Advanced Materials and Brunswick County announce the company plans to build an electric vehicle battery materials plant in the county. When completed, the company would be among the top 20 largest private employers in the Wilmington area.
Commerce Minister Embassy of India Dr. Ajay Kumar talks to the crowd as officials with Epsilon Advanced Materials and Brunswick County announce the company plans to build an electric vehicle battery materials plant in the county. When completed, the company would be among the top 20 largest private employers in the Wilmington area.
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An electric vehicle battery manufacturer based in India plans to build a facility in Brunswick County, bringing 500 jobs and a boost to the local economy, county leaders hope.

The company, Epsilon Advanced Materials, made the announcement last month alongside local, state and federal government officials, including Gov. Roy Cooper.

Headquartered in Mumbai, India, the global battery materials company supplies materials to power electric vehicles. With a nearly $650 million investment, Epsilon is building a 1.5-million-square-foot manufacturing facility to the Mid-Atlantic Industrial Rail Park along U.S. 74. This facility will be Epsilon’s first in the United States.

Here’s how the company will measure up against top employers in the county and what economic impacts the facility could have in growing Brunswick County and throughout the Wilmington area.

Top Brunswick County employers

With around 500 local employees, Epsilon would become one of the top employers in Brunswick County.

According to 2022 data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Brunswick County Schools and Brunswick County are the top two employers in the county, each employing over 1,000 people.

The company would also rank among the county's top private employers.

Private sector companies Progress Energy Service Co., Walmart, Brunswick Novant Medical Center, and Food Lion ranked as the next highest employers in the county, with between 500 and 999 employees each.

In 2022, Brunswick Community College employed some 250-499 employees and ranked eighth among the county's top employers.

When Epsilon Advanced Materials opens its plant in Brunswick County, it'll be among the top 20 private employers in the Wilmington area, joining companies such as Corning Inc. and nCino.
When Epsilon Advanced Materials opens its plant in Brunswick County, it'll be among the top 20 private employers in the Wilmington area, joining companies such as Corning Inc. and nCino.

But, across the Cape Fear River, private employers will continue to offer more jobs than Epsilon. In New Hanover County, the top private employers employing more than 1,000 people each are Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center, as well as PPD Development (Thermo Fisher Scientific) and Walmart.

Corning Inc., nCino, Live Oak Bank and 10 more private sector companies employed between 500 and 999 employees in New Hanover County in 2022.

Epsilon will offer more jobs than Pender County's largest private employers -- Medical Edge Recruitment, Walmart and RC Creations -- which employed between 250 and 499 employees each in 2022.

Economic impact locally, statewide

According to Vikram Handa, the company’s founder and managing director, the facility will support the creation of 500 jobs for the greater Wilmington area. The average salary for those jobs will be $52,264, officials said. The current average wage in Brunswick County is $46,464.

Randy Thompson, chairman of the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners, said county leaders have been “actively pursuing” economic development opportunities like this one to provide employment opportunities for Brunswick's growing population.

“This will help provide great-paying jobs for families here,” Cooper said. “But on top of that, they will need small businesses to supply them all of the things that they need. You’re going to have people who are part of this ecosystem of EVs and they can attract other companies that are part of the supply chain, so this is just the beginning – that’s how our analysts that have looked at this and predict over the next 12 years that this will be a $1.3 billion positive economic impact for our state. That means a lot.”

According to Machelle Baker Sanders, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Commerce, more than new 700 jobs and over $63 million in investments have been announced in Brunswick County since 2017.

Aside from the predicted boost to the state’s economy, Cooper added this project would put North Carolina “on the front end” when it comes to clean energy. Epsilon says it works to remain mindful of the environmental impacts of such production and works to offset those impacts.

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The facility is expected to break ground in 2024 and begin operations in 2026.

Jamey Cross covers Brunswick County for the StarNews. Reach her at jbcross@gannett.com or message her on Twitter/X @jameybcross.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: How will EV battery plant impact Brunswick County?