NC officials approve $4.2 million incentives package for Nipro expansion in Greenville

State commerce officials approved economic incentives worth up to $4.2 million for Japanese medical device maker Nipro Medical Corp., which is planning a $398-million expansion that would bring more than 230 jobs to Greenville.

The North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Economic Investment Committee voted Wednesday to approve the incentives, which include a jobs grant worth up to $2.5 million, to be paid out over 12 years if the subsidiary of Osaka, Japan-based Nipro Corp. hits hiring and investment targets. The incentives package also includes college training and infrastructure costs.

The Pitt County Board of Commissioners met last month to consider economic development incentives related to the project, which would be on land currently owned by the county. The county approved tax breaks worth up to $9 million for the project, which would be built in phases over seven years, according to county records.

Nipro’s new 550,000-square-foot plant would mark the company’s first venture into producing advanced medical devices in the U.S., state officials said. The campus is expected to host a medical training center for healthcare providers, customer service center and manufacturing space.

The company expects to create 232 jobs over five years, officials said during a special meeting of the committee. The jobs — including engineers, production workers and administrative employees and managers — would pay an average annual salary of $56,147, which is 10% above Pitt County’s current median average wage. The facility would manufacture needles and syringes for diabetes care, and dialysis filters for products that help treat chronic kidney disease.

The project is expected to expand the state’s gross domestic product by $798 million and net state revenue by about $20.7 million.

Nipro, which expects to build the facility by the end of 2030, looked at sites in seven states before narrowing it to two sites, officials said. It chose Greenville over a site in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

State officials said the company was attracted to Greenville’s proximity to customers, labor, real estate, infrastructure, utility costs, tax rates and economic incentives, officials said. It also liked the fact that the county was in close proximity to other life sciences companies. Pitt County is within the BioPharma Crescent, a five-county region in Eastern North Carolina that is home to a large cluster of biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

“This new facility marks a major milestone in Nipro's commitment to the U.S. market, allowing us to deliver high-quality medical devices that enhance patient outcomes and quality of life across the country,” Akira Shimizu, the chief executive of Nipro Medical Corp., said in a statement.

Nipro’s expansion is the latest economic development win for Pitt County. Boviet Solar, a Vietnamese maker of solar panels, announced in April that it would build its first North American plant in Greenville — a $294 million project expected to create 908 jobs. It was one of the biggest jobs announcements in the state this year and, according to local officials, the biggest economic development in Pitt County history.

County officials last month approved incentives for Grover Gaming, a fast-growing software development and design company that plans to invest another $8.5 million and create about 200 jobs in Greenville.

The Nipro deal would also be the latest Japanese company to announce an expansion in the state — part of a push by Gov. Roy Cooper to lure international companies to North Carolina.

Japan is one of the United States' largest trading partners, and the largest source of foreign investment in North Carolina. At least 225 Japanese companies have large footprints in the state, employing more than 30,500 people, according to the governor’s office. That number is expected to grow by thousands more jobs in the coming years, Cooper’s office said.

Japanese confectioner Morinaga & Co. Ltd. said Tuesday that it plans to build a second factory and create 204 jobs in Orange County to boost production of its popular Hi-Chew candies. The company said it would invest $136 million to build a 133,000-square-foot factory at its site in Mebane. The company plans to begin construction in October and begin production at the plant in early 2027.

Cooper’s recent travels to Japan helped attract thousands of manufacturing jobs to the state. Since the trade mission to Japan, North Carolina has announced about 4,380 new jobs from Japanese companies including Toyota, Fujifilm Diosynth, Dai Nippon Printing, Kyowa Kirin and Morinaga.