A medical-device campus for Greenville
Nipro Medical Corporation, owned by Nipro Corporation in Japan, plans a $397.8 million manufacturing campus in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. The 550,000-square-foot plant would produce dialyzers and precision needles and create 232 jobs. Construction was expected later in 2024, hiring in 2026 and production in 2027. Nipro's senior managing director of global business, Tsuyoshi Yamazaki, identified closer customer access, a steadier supply chain and reduced transportation as company objectives.
Nipro already has a Miami regional headquarters. Nipro Solutions operates in Pennsylvania; Nipro PharmaPackaging Americas has sites in Indiana, West Virginia and New Jersey producing pharmaceutical glass tubing. The proposed Greenville campus adds medical-device manufacturing to that existing footprint, with possible Latin American exports alongside its intended North American market.
Site acquisition and the company schedule
Nipro Corporation's July 18, 2024 site notice confirmed that its consolidated subsidiary Nipro Medical Corporation had secured the industrial property. The company identified the following details:
- Tentative name: Nipro Medical Corporation North Carolina Factory;
- Address: 1911 Old Creek Road, Greenville, NC 27834;
- Site area: approximately 528,500 square metres;
- Planned start of operations: July 2027.
That area describes the land, rather than the manufacturing building's floor space. Nipro Medical Corporation's head office remained in Miami, with Akira Shimizu identified as president in the notice. Nipro's group-wide business programme targeted consolidated net sales of 1 trillion yen by fiscal 2030. The company described local production for local consumption as its approach to stable supply, with the new factory intended to serve the United States and neighbouring countries.
Jobs and performance-based state support
North Carolina's July 17 announcement identified engineering, production, administrative and management positions. Their projected average salary was $56,147, compared with Pitt County's then-current average wage of $50,937. The state estimated potential annual payroll of more than $13 million. The campus would also contain a medical training centre for healthcare providers and a customer service centre.
The state's Economic Investment Committee approved a Job Development Investment Grant with potential reimbursement of up to $2,484,000 over 12 years. Payments depend on the departments of Commerce and Revenue verifying incremental employment and investment targets. The state estimated $797 million in economic growth during the grant term and projected a 160% return on public spending, equivalent to $2.60 of state revenue per dollar of potential cost. These were projections and conditional support, rather than grant payments already received or completed factory output.
A two-year local planning process
The Greenville Eastern North Carolina Alliance described a two-year partnership preceding the project announcement. Its vice president of business development, Uconda Dunn, had managed the project since Nipro's first Greenville-Pitt County visit in 2022. Alliance president and chief executive Josh Lewis identified collaboration across the community as part of that process. The local announcement described the property as a 130-acre industrial site owned by Pitt County.
The project partners included East Carolina University, Pitt Community College, the North Carolina Community College System, Greenville Utilities Commission and the City of Greenville. North Carolina's Department of Commerce and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina also participated. The local July 17 announcement anticipated operations in 2026; Nipro's subsequent July 18 site notice specified July 2027. The company schedule above retains that later, dated plan without presenting either forecast as a completed opening.
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