Metal processing company to expand in New Hanover County with new facility

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Wilmington Business Development announced Tuesday that a metal processing company is expanding into a new facility in New Hanover County.

Per WBD, Kesseböhmer plans to consolidate and expand its operations in North America into a new facility worth at least $30 million. The approximately 93,000 square-foot facility will be located near the Wilmington Trade Center.

The company supplies retail display and kitchen storage solutions in the U.S. and international markets.

“Kesseböhmer’s ongoing growth is a testament to our tradition, quality and, most importantly, people,” said Jan Staehler, the Germany-based vice president of Kesseböhmer. “Wilmington, N.C. is a strategically located and globally accessible location with a productive workforce, supportive leadership and engaging quality of life. Our experiences there going back 16 years now have all been highly positive.”

WBD says the company’s retail display and kitchen storage solutions operate as separate U.S. divisions, and that the interior kitchen fittings brand Kesseböhmer USA opened a sales office in Wilmington in 2007. The Kesseböhmer Retail Merchandising Division supplies customers including Walgreens and Lidl.

The new facility will move the divisions together under a single roof. Initial plans include a 30-person workforce at the facility with plans to build manufacturing operations at the facility in the future.

“This move is strategic,” said Andre Klehm, Wilmington-based chief executive officer of Kesseböhmer Retail Merchandising. “It puts our team and our operations all under a single, centrally located roof, which will go far in maximizing our efficiency. Having such a quality facility, when combined with Wilmington’s unbeatable talent pool, the excellent port and the business-oriented local leaders, gives us great confidence that this is where we want to and need to be.”

The McKinley Building Corporation will partner as the facility’s builder, and Kesseböhmer worked with Wilmington Business Development and McKinley to build a plan for the company’s goals.

“New Hanover County is excited to be the backdrop for additional growth at Kesseböhmer,” said New Hanover County Board of Commissioners Chair Bill Rivenbark. “Today’s groundbreaking is the result of passion and hard work of New Hanover County and the Board of Commissioners who have had the vision over the years to make the U.S. Hwy 421 corridor a go-to industrial destination for the region.”

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