Columbia, SC— Attorneys and economic development professionals with Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP in Columbia have helped ZF Transmissions Gray Court complete plans for a major expansion of the global automotive supplier’s transmissions facility in Laurens County, South Carolina.

The company’s ZF Transmissions Gray Court facility bought a 150,000 square-foot building in Owings Industrial Park, less than two miles from Interstate 385, and plans to have the manufacturing and warehousing expansion fully operational in the first quarter of 2016.

ZF Transmissions Gray Court plans to invest $22.5 million and create 545 new jobs over the next five years. The company is headquartered in Friedrichshafen, Germany, and is a leading global supplier of driveline, chassis and safety technologies. The company currently employs more than 1,600 people at its Laurens County operation, which has an annual capacity of 1.2 million transmissions, including an eight-speed version and the world’s first nine-speed automatic transmission.

“This is great news for Laurens County, the Upstate and all of South Carolina as the Palmetto State continues to build on its reputation as a prime location for world-class manufacturers of automobiles and the components that make them run. We’re happy to have had a role in helping this latest project from one of Germany’s leading global companies come to fruition,” said Sam Moses, a Partner with Parker Poe in Columbia and Co-chair of the firm’s Business Incentives & Investment Group.

About Parker Poe
Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP has approximately 200 lawyers in five offices located in major markets across North Carolina and South Carolina. The Firm provides legal counsel to large commercial and public organizations on litigation, corporate and regulatory matters.