Community welcomes new manufacturer

Turbotec Products expects to grow here

By John Dayberry

Hickory Daily Record

A manufacturer of heat exchangers and heat transfer tubing showcased its operations here during a recent open house.

Turbotec Products, a Windsor, Conn.-based company, began operations in January of a fabrication division in a 20,000-square-foot existing building in the CrossPoint Business Park at 914 25th St. SE

Turbotec employs about a dozen people at its Hickory operation, which it expects to grow, said Sunil Raina, company president.
"As the company grows, we expect to be doing more and more down here, " Raina said.

Raina said Turbotec considered 30 locations for the expansion, choosing Hickory in part because of the quality of its work force and the availability of training programs through Catawba Valley Community College.

The company is eligible to receive tax credits through the state of $125,000 for job creation.

The company is also eligible to receive state-funded training through CVCC for the new jobs.

There were no local incentives given for the project.

Welcoming Turbotec to the community during the open house were representatives of the city of Hickory, The Catawba County Board of Commissioners, the Catawba County Economic Development Corp. and the N.C. Department of Commerce.

Turbotec, a world leader in enhanced heat transfer technology, manufactures a wide range of high performance heat exchangers for space conditioning or refrigeration applications in t he biomedical, geothermal, water heating and heat pump markets.