NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) – Boeing's new interior fabrication facility located in the Palmetto Commerce Parkway off Ladson Road is impressive, but behind the machines, are its workers, 140 of them. They are the few who made the cut, after 50,000 applied.
Thursday, Boeing and those employees celebrated the facility's opening. Workers will be making items like overhead stow bins, dividers, closets and many of the interior pieces in the airplane. They'll be training until January when they'll start full production.
The employees in this facility aren't the only ones benefiting from Boeing. Mark Derry owns Cowboy USA out of Walterboro, now contracted by the aircraft manufacturer.
"Everything that comes by truck, we bring it," Derry said.
Derry says he never imagined his trucks would be delivering supplies to the aeronautics giant.
"As a small business in a historically underdeveloped area, we were kind of concerned they wouldn't look at us," Derry said.
But they did hire the company out of Colleton County along with several others. Stephen Webb works for DASH Courier and is also contracted with Boeing and hired about 20 people locally.
"We're now racing out of town to go grab a part that's five hours away that's, the whole plane is waiting on this one part, so that's the type of delivering that we do, emergent ops, emergent operations," Webb said.
Both companies say they've grown thanks to Boeing, so it's no wonder, for them, it was cause for celebration when the company opened up another facility. South Carolina lawmakers hope Boeing's standing will lead to even more ribbon cuttings.
"We're seeing a lot of folks looking at South Carolina like they didn't before because Boeing is here," S.C. Senator Paul Campbell said.
Too bad, lawmakers won't say who else may be eyeing the Palmetto State.
"We aren't going to give our competitors any inside information. I'll just say this: There are some great opportunities ahead," S.C. Senate President Glenn McConnell said.
Lawmakers say, with Boeing, the sky's the limit.
Boeing employees celebrated the opening Thursday. (Natalie Caula/WCIV)
