South Raleigh News

Morinaga America Foods, Inc., a subsidiary of the Japanese confectionary company Morinaga & Co., Ltd., will expand its current operations in Orange County with an investment of $136 million, Governor Roy Cooper announced today. The company reports it will create 204 jobs in Mebane.

“North Carolina continues to attract large investments from companies in Japan because we offer the advantages they look for,” said Governor Cooper. “It was great to visit with Morinaga’s leadership when I was in Japan and it’s clear that the relationships we’ve made along with our great workforce, infrastructure and quality of life continue to bring good jobs to our state.”

Morinaga & Co., Ltd. was founded in Tokyo in 1899. The company and its subsidiaries produce and distribute a wide array of confectionary products enjoyed worldwide, such as milk caramel, chocolate, cookies, and frozen desserts. In 2013, the company established its American subsidiary and selected North Carolina for its first manufacturing site outside of Asia, opening the Mebane plant in 2015 to produce one of the company’s signature products, HI-CHEW candy. Increased demand for HI-CHEW led to today’s expansion decision, which will bring additional manufacturing space and production lines to the Orange County site.

"I would like to express my gratitude to the government officials who supported the investment,” said Masaki Matsumoto, Senior Executive Officer and General Manager of the Overseas Business Division for Morinaga Japan. “We aim to become a company that continues to grow here in North Carolina."

“We welcome this renewed commitment to our state by Morinaga,” said Commerce Secretary Machelle Baker Sanders. “Companies with direct experience of doing business in our state validate our economic strategies when they review their operations and then decide to expand here. We will continue to strengthen the things companies value, like our workforce training programs so great expansions like this one will keep happening in North Carolina.”

In October 2023, Governor Cooper and Secretary Sanders led a North Carolina delegation to Japan for the annual Southeastern United States/Japan (SEUS/Japan) Economic Development Conference in Tokyo to recruit industry and meet with business leaders. During that trip, they met with senior executives of Morinaga to discuss opportunities for further investment.

Since the Governor’s trade mission to Japan, North Carolina has seen 4,379 new jobs announced from Japanese companies including Toyota, Fujifilm Diosynth, Dai Nippon Printing, Kyowa Kirin, and now Morinaga.

Japan is one of the nation’s largest trading partners and home to 225 companies with significant presences in North Carolina. In the past decade, Japan has accounted for nearly half of all foreign direct investment (FDI) in North Carolina. More than 30,500 North Carolinians work at Japanese-owned companies.

This April, Governor Cooper hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to deepen ties between the state and Japanese leadership and celebrate recent Japanese business investments. This year’s SEUS/Japan Conference will be held this October in Charlotte.

A performance-based grant of $100,000 from the One North Carolina Fund will help facilitate Morinaga’s expansion contingent on a company capital investment of $115.4 million and local government support. The OneNC Fund provides financial assistance to local governments for attracting economic investment and creating jobs; companies receive no money upfront but must meet job creation targets.

Morinaga's new positions will include production staff as well as quality assurance and maintenance personnel. Although wages vary by position under the grant agreement terms average annual salary is projected at $67,075 potentially generating an annual payroll impact exceeding $2.6 million per year against Orange County's overall average wage which stands at $66,979.

“HI-CHEW is a unique confection manufactured here in Orange County distributed nationwide,” said N.C Representative Renée Price.”Morinaga has been welcomed since 2013; their expansion is exciting news bringing new jobs/investment."

“Morinaga has become one region's valued employers it's exciting see next chapter growth area," added N.C Senator Graig Meyer."Many people organizations came together support expansion look forward seeing future ahead."

Partnering on this project were multiple entities including NC Department Commerce/Economic Development Partnership NC/NC General Assembly/NC Community College System/Commerce Department Workforce Solutions Division/Orange County Board Commissioners Manager Office City Mebane/Orange County Economic Development Office.