Force Protection makes armored vehicles used by the military and trains troops in how to use them.
Their blast-resistant Cheetah was scheduled to be assembled in Roxboro, NC but not one single order has been placed.
"One of the largest makers of blast-resistant vehicles for the U.S. Marines is rekindling plans for a Person County facility that went cold this year.
Force Protection, based in Ladson, S.C., was supposed to spend $31 million to rebuild an empty automotive plant outside Roxboro and create 270 jobs over the next three years. That's according to the terms of a deal reached last year between the company and state and local economic development officials.
Force Protection has invested $20 million in upgrading the plant, but manufacturing is on hold indefinitely. The company is wrestling with accounting problems, eroding market share and a failure to generate a single order for the blast-resistant Cheetah, which it plans to assemble in Person County.
Last week, CEO Michael Moody said the company trimmed its work force to 1,540 from a peak of about 2,000 late last year.
Moody also announced an overhaul of operations that will shift some work to Roxboro from a facility in Summerville, S.C.
By year's end, Force Protection expects to be teaching military personnel to operate its Cougar and Buffalo blast-resistant vehicles at the Person County site. Mechanics who go overseas to work on vehicles also will receive training there, spokesman Tommy Pruitt said.
The company will hire to fill some of those spots, but it will also give employees from South Carolina a chance to relocate. Pruitt would not say how many workers the facility will need or how many the company would hire. Nor would he say how the shift from manufacturing to training would affect wages.
The company has about 15 workers at the facility near Roxboro. They were hired locally in recent months to help make upgrades. The company's Web site lists only one job opening at the site -- for a spare-parts analyst, with annual pay of $54,000.
Average pay for manufacturing positions at the plant was expected to be $30,276 a year, plus benefits. The average pay for the training positions will be about $50,000, plus benefits, well above the average Person County salary of $28,496, excluding benefits.
All of the jobs created must pay at least $25,121 a year, not including benefits, according to the deal with state economic development officials.
Glen Newsome, director of the Person County Economic Development Commission, said he has assurances from Force Protection that it will meet hiring and investment targets scheduled for the next three years.
"They've kept us in the loop as to what has been going on, and we have no doubt that they will meet their goals," he said.
Newsome said Force Protection has not missed any incentives deadlines.
Iraq, armor and troops
Force Protection's profile rose after it became a supplier to the U.S. military in Iraq in 2005. The company's vehicles have V-shaped hulls and thick armor and are used to protect troops from roadside bomb blasts.
After peaking at more than $30 a share in the summer of 2007, Force Protection stock has plummeted, closing at $4.03 Monday. Competition from larger suppliers and a decision by the Marines to buy a third fewer bomb-resistant vehicles hurt sales. Force Protection also never received the military contract it had anticipated for the Cheetah line that was to be built in Person.
This year, the company delayed filing its 2007 financial report to the Securities Exchange Commission, saying it needed to restate results for the three- and nine-month periods that ended Sept. 30 because of significant accounting errors.
Without timely financial results, the Nasdaq Stock Market had threatened to delist the company."
