WINTON – The jobs picture in Hertford County became a bit brighter here Monday morning.

Hertford County Economic Development Director Bill Early announced Structural Coatings Hertford has finalized plans to construct and operate a state of the art plate painting facility.  The company has purchased nearly 40 acres of land along River Road near Cofield, across from the old CF Industries site.

“The location for this facility was selected by our company based on several factors, two of which are the strategic location in close proximity to Nucor Plate Mill and the need for business development in Northeastern North Carolina,” said Ray Hales, President of Structural Coatings Hertford.

Hales added that the Cofield location will offer a value added service to steel plate customers for blasting and priming of steel plate.

The facility will be equipped with fully automated blast cleaning and paint processing equipment within a 45,000 square foot facility. The estimated investment for this facility is $10 million.

Plans are to initially hire 20-25 employees, utilizing North Carolina Employment Security Commission, NC Career Readiness Certification Program, Hertford County Job Link and other industry organizations for hiring.

“We are happy that Structural Coatings chose Hertford County as a good place to expand its current business operations.  It has been a pleasure working with the officials of Structural Coatings in locating this expansion in Hertford County.  We look forward to a long-term partnership,” said Early.

Start up of the new facility is scheduled for the first quarter of 2012. Structural Coatings Hertford, LLC will be managed by The Hales Group, Inc. That firm, located in Johnston County N.C., owns and operates three divisions: Structural Steel Products Corporation, The Hales Company and Structural Coatings, Inc.  The divisions specialize in fabrication for steel structures, logistics and coatings for various markets, including bridge and highway, oversize/over length freight and coatings for substructure piling in areas throughout the Mid Atlantic and Gulf Coast states.

The steel plate painting process has been widely embraced as a method of protecting steel plate during transit, fabrication and service for many industries for over 25 years.  The new facility will promote the use of pre-construction primers for markets such as marine, rail, wind energy and mining equipment.

For additional information contact Structural Coatings Hertford at SCHinfo@thehalesgroup.net.

Structural Coatings Hertford is the fourth new company to locate in the county over the past 12 months. Others are Wellons Energy Solutions, LLC who is constructing a biomass cogeneration facility near Cofield that will provide saturated steam to a Perdue AgriBusiness facility that includes a soy crushing facility and feed mill; Enviva Biomass, who plans to open a wood pellet mill in Ahoskie later this year; and GreenCo Solutions and North Carolina Electric Membership Corporation (NCEMC) will purchase renewable energy certificates and electricity, respectively, from a new solar project Duke Energy is acquiring from SunPower located on a 37-acre solar farm just east of the Murfreesboro Bypass.

Early said the four new companies will combine to invest $100 million in Hertford County.