Mebane candy factory slated to open June 2015

Orange County will soon be the producer of 14 million pounds of candy.

On Thursday night, members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners and the Mebane City Council discussed the construction of Morinaga America’s 98,000-square-foot candy factory.

The Mebane factory is the company’s first on U.S. soil, and it will produce 7,000 tons of the company’s Starburst-like candy Hi-Chew annually, said Steve Brantley, Orange County economic development director.

Brantley said the building process has been going very smoothly since the company broke ground on the 21-acre site in March, and everything is on track for its opening in mid-2015.

“The project is on schedule, even ahead of schedule in some respects,” Brantley said. “The company is ahead of schedule too, and I hear they even like working in the middle of the night.”

County Commissioner Earl McKee, said everything is going along very well.

“The foundation is in, and the floor has been poured,” McKee said. “I don’t know if it’s this week or next week, but they are soon to put up the walls on the building.”

McKee said the company’s tentative finishing date is set for June 2015.

Brantley said the 3,500-foot-long access road to the plant is also ahead of schedule. The road was part of an incentive plan to bring the Japanese company to North Carolina and is being built by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The incentive plan also included annexing and rezoning the land into the city of Mebane and Orange County agreeing to provide the site with water and sewer lines, which came at a cost of about $575,000.

Brantley repeatedly stressed the company’s dedication to Mebane and Orange County.

“As their first American investment, they are not going to cut any corners,” Brantley said. “They want to make this a premier location. This project has helped to raise our confidence in terms of what Orange County can do.”

He said Keita Morinaga, son of the company’s chairman, will relocate from New Jersey to Orange County in two weeks to supervise the plant.

Morinaga America is committed to bringing 90 jobs and investing $48 million over the next three years to Mebane, but Mebane Mayor Glendel Stephenson said the company is already 

“They have some additional thoughts about an expansion within the coming years,” Stephenson said. “We expect that the plant might double within the next several years.”

McKee said he believes the new factory will have a trickle down effect on the city of Mebane and its surrounding areas in Orange County.

“It’s not only the 90 jobs that are directly associated with the folks that will work there, but it’s also the bleed over of the money they will make that will go into the community, which in turn will only generate more jobs and help the local economy,” McKee said.

“This is a very progressive thing that will move down and eventually help all the neighbors for years to come.”

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