Cary company is latest to have NC incentive package canceled due to hiring struggles
In April 2017, North Carolina awarded the communications technology firm Trilliant Networks a $1.3 million grant to move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Cary, where the company pledged to add 130 jobs.
But on Jan. 10, the state canceled Trilliant’s grant after the company failed to file a required performance report with the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Since 2017, the company created 30 positions in Cary, less than a fourth of its initial jobs target.
While the state did not receive details on why the deadline was missed, the company has indicated leaving its incentive agreement was intentional.
“Our original planned pace of hiring in Cary unfortunately slowed due to the pandemic beginning in early 2020, which prevented Trilliant from receiving further incentives,” said Trilliant spokesperson Cindy Watson in an email to The News & Observer.
Watson said the firm’s headquarters will remain in Cary.
The state’s job development investment grant, or JDIG, is strictly tied to job creation, with payroll tax reimbursements only materializing when a company meets its annual hiring, investment and filing requirements.
According to public records, Trilliant received only $10,387 from its state grant and an additional $9,500 in local grants, both of which were realized through tax breaks.
Utilities and municipalities across the world use Trilliant’s smart metering technology.
How state grants are used
Trilliant isn’t the only Triangle company in recent months to cite the pandemic as cause for having its state-incentive package terminated.
In November, the North Carolina Economic Investment Committee (EIC) unanimously voted to end the $2.1 million grant awarded in 2017 to business services company Conduent. The EIC is the five-person body that approves JDIGs, the chief economic incentive North Carolina uses to attract new businesses.
In a letter to the EIC, Conduent’s vice president of tax operations Keith Kruger wrote that “COVID and changing business conditions” had prevented the company from meeting its job targets.
Like Trilliant, Conduent was awarded its grant when the company agreed to create around 200 jobs at its research hub in Morrisville. Kruger noted Conduent has maintained 73 positions created through its JDIG, and according to state records, North Carolina paid Conduent a little more than $53,000 during the lifetime of this grant.
JDIGs have been behind many of the largest jobs announcements over the past two years: Apple coming to Wake County, VinFast to Chatham County, Toyota to Randolph County, Boom Supersonic to Greensboro, and dozens of smaller projects.
Yet historically, most JDIGs haven’t met their original job targets. Since the job grant program started in 2003, early-terminated grants outnumber completed grants by around 4-to-1. An N&O analysis found that the majority of awarded JDIGs eventually ended prematurely in every year between 2003 and 2015, except for one.
The early terminations have continued. On the same day the state canceled Trilliant’s grant, it also ended its incentive deals with three other companies outside the Triangle.
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
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