Fujifilm pledges 680 more jobs, another $1.2 billion to incoming Wake County plant
The photography-turned-pharmaceutical manufacturer Fujifilm plans to expand its North Carolina operations with a new $1.2 billion investment and promise of 680 more jobs in Wake County, state officials announced Thursday.
Already the Triangle’s largest life science project, the Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies facility in Holly Springs will benefit from the commitment — with average wages of the new jobs expected to exceed $109,000.
Fujifilm Diosynth, a division of its Japanese parent Fujifilm Corp., is a contract pharmaceutical manufacturer; it doesn’t create medicines itself but instead mass produces the drugs other companies invent. The company has a campus in Research Triangle Park and is readying a more massive plant in Holly Springs, a town of 46,000 southwest of Raleigh.
The Holly Springs development dates to March 2021, when the state awarded Fujifilm an economic incentive worth close to $20 million over 12 years to create 725 jobs at a $1.5 billion site while retaining its 664 existing positions in North Carolina. Wake County and Holly Springs added $92 million in incentives to the development, including land donation and a tax grant.
On Thursday, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee awarded Fujifilm Diosynth another job development investment grant, worth up to $14.9 million dollars. Local incentives, between Holly Springs and Wake County, could total $54.3 million.
Additional new state incentives to Fujifilm included $1.7 million for community college job training and $1.3 million from the Division of Workforce Solutions, a state job placement agency.
Job development investment grants, or JDIGs, are the state’s chief economic incentive. The grants offer recipients payroll tax benefits provided the companies reach annual hiring and investment targets. Under its latest expansion, Fujifilm Diosynth pledged to add the 680 jobs within a five-year period ending in 2031. The company also committed to invest another $1.2 billion at the facility by 2028.
Fujifilm Diosynth says it will eventually employ more than 1,400 workers in Holly Springs, with its overall site investment topping $3.2 billion.
Thursday’s Economic Investment Committee meeting was timed hours before the scheduled arrival of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for an official state visit. Fujifilm is among a list of Japan-based companies that have recently chosen North Carolina for expansion, including Toyota, Dai Nippon Printing, and Kyowa Kirin.
In an interview this week, Gov. Roy Cooper told The News & Observer he appreciates the priority many Japanese businesses place on stability.
“They also aren’t looking for quick profit,” he said, adding, “I think most of the Japanese companies that we have dealt with plan for a long, sustainable future. And they think about planting the trees under which people they may never know will enjoy the shade.”
Cooper joined state leaders Thursday at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh to celebrate the Fujifilm news.
“It’s pretty clear that North Carolina has become an advanced manufacturing powerhouse,” he said. “And it has become a particular effort of ours to become a leading state for the life sciences.”
Holly Springs becoming a hub
Though historically known for photography, Fujifilm has in recent years shifted resources toward health care.
In 2022, another subsidiary called Fujifilm Irvine Scientific announced plans to open a $188 million cell culture manufacturing plant in Research Triangle Park. In an interview Thursday, Fujifilm Diosynth CEO Lars Petersen told The News & Observer pharmaceuticals are expected to comprise half of parent Fujifilm’s overall business by 2030.
Petersen said his company aims to open the Holly Springs facility next year. The site is projected to be the biggest cell culture contract manufacturing plant in North America, with at least 16 bioreactors, a total that doubled after the latest investment. And the plant has room for a total of 32 bioreactors.
“We might even discuss another expansion,” he said. “That’s also why we have a site that is capable of expanding one more time.”
Petersen explained demand for antibody medications, administered through injections, is driving the company’s Wake County growth.
In the fall, the Holly Springs campus announced its first tenant, a Johnson & Johnson company called Janssen Supply Group. Petersen said at least three more drugmakers have reserved space at the facility, though the companies have not yet been made public.
To receive a JDIG incentive, companies must show they considered alternative development sites outside of North Carolina. Fujifilm told the state commerce department it had considered locations in Singapore, Denmark, and California for its latest expansion, nicknamed Project Aurora, before settling on Holly Springs. The company cited “operational synergies, proximity to patients, local incentives, workforce capability, and market access” as deciding factors.
Speaking at the state history museum Thursday, Wake County Board of Commissioner chair Shinica Thomas boasted the area’s “inclusive community” and “quality of life” also played key roles, saying “we love to see that you see in Wake County what we see every day.”
Holly Springs, in recent years, has seen a spike in life science activity. In January 2023, the New York-based global private equity firm Apollo Global Management and its development partner GeneSuites announced plans for Catalyst BioCampus, a complex offering “up to 446,000 square feet” of biomanufacturing, office, and lab space. And in 2022, the California-based company Amgen broke ground on a 350,000-square-foot multi-product drug manufacturing plant near the town.
At the announcement event, Petersen said the Holly Springs plant will have a vital role in “U.S. pandemic preparedness and securing the United States supply chain for medicine.”
“We are incredibly grateful to be part of the nation’s fourth-largest biotechnology hub as it continues its growth,” he said. “I could not be prouder.”
Richard Stradling contributed reporting.
