General Tobacco Moving its HQ to Rockingham

Source from:  bizjournals.com Friday, October 12, 2007 10/16/2007

The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area - by Matt Evans The Business Journal Serving the Greater Triad Area General Tobacco, the cigarette manufacturer that announced in June it would open a factory in Rockingham County, has decided also to relocate its corporate headquarters, according to company officials. The company will relocate 20 executives from its current base of operations in Miami, and will probably hire another 25 people locally for administrative functions when the headquarters and manufacturing operations get started in January, according to Ronald Denman. He is General Tobacco's executive vice president and general counsel. The latest job announcements are in addition to about 90 factory employees the company expects to hire at the onset, Denman said. General Tobacco plans to invest as much as $50 million in the conversion of the former Unifi Plant No. 5 in Mayodan and create 199 jobs there over three years. In return, the company will receive a total of $3.4 million in state and local incentives for the move. "We're very hands on, and we want to be where we're making the product," Denman said of the headquarters move. "If we're one door away from our factory and something needs to be done, we're right there. We can make decisions on-the-spot." Enditem