AW North Carolina Announces Plans to Add New Product Line, Invest Over $100 Million and Create 360 New Jobs

For Immediate Release:
April 22, 2010


DURHAM, N.C. – AW North Carolina, Inc. announced today, plans to add a new production line at the company’s facility on Old Oxford Highway. The investment is expected to exceed $100 million and generate as many as 360 new jobs during the next two years.

The new line will start production to manufacture and ship fully assembled front wheel drive automatic transmissions in the fall of 2011 for Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America. This new line will transfer the production and processes from Japan. This project will bring new business to several suppliers in the U.S. creating additional jobs.

"AW North Carolina's decision to expand here is another sign that our state is a top place to do business. We welcome this expansion and the significant new jobs and investment it brings,” said Gov. Bev Perdue. “AW North Carolina's investment in the community and the state have been very important throughout its 11-year history here. AWNC’s involvement with the state’s community college system around training and career development has proven that relationships between manufacturers and education are alive, successful, and growing in our state.” AW North Carolina's parent company AISIN AW Co. Ltd hosted NC Dept of Commerce officials for a tour of AW Headquarters in Anjo City, Japan during the state's Asia economic development trip in October.

An industry-leading manufacturer of automatic transmissions and transmission components, AW North Carolina broke ground in Durham just over 11 years ago to produce components for Toyota Motor Manufacturing’s front wheel drive passenger vehicles and fully assembled rear wheel drive automatic transmissions for their heavier vehicles. The company will begin installation of the new equipment at the 820,000-square-foot facility in the fall of 2010 bringing its total investment to more than $550 million.

“We are excited to install this new product line and add approximately 360 people to the 900 full time and temporary Team Members currently here beginning in early 2011,” said Will Collins, Vice President of AW North Carolina.

AW North Carolina, Inc. has earned a number of expansion projects and new lines of production from Toyota over the past several years. “Our customer’s commitment to environmentally friendly automotive products has always been a shared vision with AW North Carolina and we are excited to add new transmissions to our line-up”, Collins said.
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About AW North Carolina
A subsidiary of Japanese major automatic transmission manufacturer Aisin AW Co Ltd., AW North Carolina, Inc. was founded in 1998 and supplies Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America with key automotive transmission components and fully assembled automatic transmissions for some of America’s best-selling vehicles including the Camry, Tundra, Tacoma, Sequoia and other vehicles. Located in Durham, NC’s Treyburn Corporate Park, AW North Carolina is Aisin AW Company’s first manufacturing facility in the United States.

Virginia Beach Hardee's Biscuit Maker Named Best in Boddie-Noell's 2010 Biscuit-Making Challenge

ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. (March 29, 2010) – Boddie-Noell Enterprises announced that Lee Damien of Virginia Beach, Va., is the 2010 overall winner of the company’s annual Biscuit Maker Challenge.

Damien was selected in judged competition as the best of the 740 biscuit makers at Hardee’s restaurants operated by Boddie-Noell, the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the United States. She bakes biscuits at the Hardee’s at 2188 Great Neck Square Shopping Center in Virginia Beach.

Damien was one of four regional finalists selected from the restaurants which are located across North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Kentucky. The other three regional winners are Wanda Flynn of Leland, Mary Hall of Petersburg, Va., and Vickie Huff of Pennington Gap, Va.

The four biscuit-making finalists will be featured later this year on customer in-store tray liners at all Hardee’s operated by Boddie-Noell.

The competition started in December, and each biscuit maker was evaluated based on the quality of his or her biscuits, knowledge of proper biscuit equipment, cleanliness and care of biscuit equipment, knowledge and execution of company procedures, grooming and appearance. The competition’s judges included general and district managers, regional directors and vice presidents of operations and other executives in the restaurant division of Boddie-Noell.

Damien said that she was proud but shocked when she won the award. “When I entered I wasn’t planning on winning,” said Damien, a mother of two. “When I bake at home it’s usually with my daughter and we make cookies and brownies.”

Damien has worked as a biscuit maker at Hardee’s for five months and has the least amount of experience baking Hardee’s biscuits of any biscuit maker to win the competition since it began in 1983. She will go on to compete against other franchise and corporate-owned store winners at the Hardee’s regional bake-off in Burlington, N.C., at the end of this month.

“The first time I met her she brought out the most beautiful tray of biscuits I’ve ever seen from a newbie,” said Gene Dickens, a Boddie-Noell regional vice president. “She always has a smile on her face and this is a fantastic achievement for someone who has only worked for an organization this long.”

Boddie-Noell honored the four regional winners and announced Damien as the overall winner during a banquet at the company’s Rose Hill Conference Center near Nashville.

“We have some amazing biscuit makers within our company, but these folks are the best of the best,” said Terry Lewis, Boddie-Noell’s vice president of operations for Hardee’s and host of the Biscuit Maker Banquet. “They make some fantastic biscuits and we’re very proud to have them working for our company.”

Aside from making biscuits, Damien enjoys reading, writing fiction, creating jewelry, eating good food and spending time with her family.

Hardee’s Made from Scratch™ biscuits, which have been served at Boddie-Noell restaurants since the 1970’s, are a critical part of the restaurant’s menu. In 2009, Hardee’s restaurants owned and operated by Boddie-Noell used 744,000 pounds of biscuit flour – enough dough to fill nearly 258 tractor-trailers. The restaurants also used 650,000 gallons of buttermilk.

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Boddie-Noell Enterprises (BNE) is a diversified family-owned business engaged primarily in restaurants and land development. A Hardee’s franchise operator for 48 years, BNE is the largest Hardee’s franchise operator in the United States with 340 restaurants across four states (North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and South Carolina). The company-owned restaurant brands include Texas Steakhouse & Saloon and Café Carolina and Bakery. BNE also operates franchise Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurants as well as the historic Rose Hill Conference Center. The company has major land-development projects completed or under way along the North Carolina coast and in Virginia. BNE employs more than 12,000 people and is headquartered in Rocky Mount, N.C. For more information about the company, visit www.bneinc.com.