Dollar General announced Monday they will bring 105 jobs to Clayton with an average salary of $33,280.
Dollar General plans to assume 320,000 square foot of storage space at the Carolina Distribution Center in Clayton. The move brings a $13 million capital investment by the Tennessee-based retailer to the Johnston County site. Dollar General’s planned workforce there exceeds the number formerly employed at the facility by Smithfield Foods, which relocated its distribution operations to Bladen County last fall.
“We’re excited to welcome this national retail name and the jobs and investment it intends to make in Clayton,” said Ted Godwin, chairman of the Johnston County Board of Commissioners. “Dollar General’s plans for cold storage operations here highlights several key Johnston County assets, including convenient proximity to a growing consumer base, affordability, diversified labor assets and supportive local government.”
Publicly-held Dollar General [NYSE: DG] operates more than 15,000 stores in 44 states. The company, founded in 1939 and headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tenn., employs a worldwide workforce of 129,000. Dollar General has 782 stores in North Carolina.
At their monthly meeting on Monday, Johnston County Commissioners approved a performance-based 5-year, 50 percent grant based on Dollar General’s investment of $13 million in real and personal property at its Clayton facility. That amounts to approximately $46,800 per year, or $234,000 over the life of the grant. All payments are predicated on the company meeting its investment and job creation targets.
Demographers project Johnston County’s population to swell to 300,000 over the coming 15 years, up from 205,000 residents today. That growth places a premium on planning, economic development, new infrastructure, housing and other services in the coming years, according to Chris Johnson, director of Johnston County’s Office of Economic Development.
Johnston County’s 3.5 percent unemployment rate as of the most recent N.C. Department of Commerce release sits below both the state’s overall 3.8 percent and the 3.9 percent figure for the U.S. “Still, everyday we’ve got as many as 60,000 residents who leave Johnston County for work,” Johnson said. “It’s our job to turn those cars around.”
