Hiring to Start in Summer For 1,000 New Jobs in Anderson County

Anderson County Council passed a tax incentive needed for First Quality Tissue to locate in Anderson County Friday morning.

"This is the greatest thing that's happened in Anderson County's history. It's the largest single investment in the county's history," Council member Eddie Moore said.

First Quality Tissue expects the initial operations to commence in 2011 and will begin the hiring process in the third quarter of 2010. 

The company anticipates hiring 200 positions this summer. ReadySC will assist with hiring and training of new employees for the new Anderson County facility. SC OneStop officials said they didn't know how much the jobs would pay, but expected the salaries to be varied among positions.

Individuals interested in applying for positions should visit the S.C. Tech Jobs Web site at in the months ahead.

In addition to First Quality’s plans to create 1,000 new direct jobs over time, an additional 550 construction jobs will be created to build the facility.

The official announcement of First Quality Tissue building a plant in Anderson County - which is expected to bring more than 1,000 new jobs - began at 11:00a.m. at the Civic Center of Anderson.

"Among the factors that attracted First Quality to Anderson are the pool of skilled labor, positive work ethic and the availability of the infrastructure necessary to sustain our facility," said Frank Ludovina, company representative for First Quality in a written statement. "As important, however, is the pro-business environment that has been created there." 

State Senator Billy O’Dell -- who represents District 4 that includes Abbeville, Anderson and Greenwood counties -- said the plant will be a manufacturing facility for products made of paper

Governor Mark Sanford attended the formal announcement Friday morning in the Upstate (read a release from the governor’s office here).

First Quality’s Web site states they make products for:

• Adult incontinence
• Feminine hygiene
• Disposable washcloths
• Consumer paper products
• Baby products
• Bottled water
• Engineered Fabrics

The interim county director pointed out that the facility is not a paper mill, so the odor usually associated with them won't be a factor.

 “When it’s all said and done, we hope this news will mean about 1,500 jobs for Anderson County,” said Council Chairman Tommy Dunn. “We are excited. Anderson County has had a team working quite some time on this and this lets the state, country and world know that Anderson County is open for business. We have some other things in the works as well, and hope to be making announcements on those in the future.”