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Greensboro equipment company plans $30M expansion and job creation

The JMP Equipment Company is investing $30 million in expanding its Greensboro headquarters. (Adobe Stock photo)

The JMP Equipment Company is investing $30 million in expanding its Greensboro headquarters. (Adobe Stock photo)

The James M. Pleasants Company, Inc. (JMP), a Greensboro company specializing in HVAC and plumbing services, is making a $30 million investment to expand its operations. According to a news release, the company provides energy-efficient supplies for HVAC and plumbing systems.

JMP currently employs over 100 workers, and company officials say the expansion project will create 40 new jobs with average annual salaries of about $64,000.

Marvin Price is an executive with the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. He says that JMP sets an example as a homegrown company, founded in Greensboro in 1958.

"So for them to be headquartered here, to grow here, to pay property taxes here, and for us to get this expansion, I think it's a great thing, because it tells the story that companies can make it here, they can grow here," says Price. 

Price also praises the company for being employee-owned and for its local apprenticeship programs.

The expansion is being facilitated in part by a performance-based grant of $35,000 from the One North Carolina Fund, which was created to help local governments attract new economic opportunities. 

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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