Governor Terry McAuliffe announced Thursday that Unison Ltd, a leading global tube bending machine specialist, will invest $5.2 million to establish its first U.S. manufacturing operation in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park, jointly owned by the City of Danville and Pittsylvania County. Virginia successfully competed against North Carolina and the United Kingdom for the project, which will create 35 new jobs. Governor McAuliffe successfully recruited this project for the Commonwealth during his June 2017 trade and marketing mission to Europe where he met with company officials at the Paris Air Show.

“We are thrilled to add Unison to Virginia’s international corporate roster, and know the company will be a strong addition to the growing manufacturing community in Danville-Pittsylvania County,” said Governor McAuliffe, speaking at the event. “I met with Unison officials on this important project in June, and am proud the Commonwealth was selected as the company’s entry point into the U.S. market. Strengthening the advanced manufacturing sector is a key component of diversifying and building the new Virginia economy, and we look forward to helping Unison succeed.”

Southeast Manufacturing News featured an article on Virginia's workforce development program in the August 2017 issue.

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A three-day journey through Virginia shows advanced manufacturing’s concern with pursuing lean principles when facing challenges rooted in the past and arriving on the horizon.

Photo: An employee at TMI Autotech looks over a part drawing in the facility’s machine shop. The company is increasingly being asked to machine small batches of parts for clients such as those that supply TMI with car components.

Amid reassurances from our hosts that Virginia’s weather isn’t usually overcast, rainy and chilly in the middle of May, I and three other media guests traveled town to town for three days visiting, all in all, 10 manufacturers, industry education institutes and R&D campuses. Our ebullient hosts from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) drove our party across the leafy (and yes, wet) hills and valleys of central and southern Virginia to meet manufacturers which, despite their various industries and end markets, nevertheless shared some common concerns: finding and training skilled labor, and pursuing lean principles in the face of challenges both rooted in the past and looming on the horizon.

The president of the company praises the hub’s access to a plethora of local advanced manufacturing and research organizations near Danville.

One year after the acquisition of SGS Tool Co. by Kyocera Corp., Kyocera SGS Precision Tools has broken ground in Danville, Virginia, beginning work on the Kyocera SGS Tech Hub. Representing a $9.5 million investment and partnership with The City of Danville and The State of Virginia, the Tech Hub is projected to create over three dozen jobs supporting next-generation engineering and manufacturing of cutting tools serving the automotive, aerospace, medical and power generation industries, among others.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe came to Danville on Friday to honor the more than $1 million — and a nearly equal amount of hopes — invested into the freshly completed Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research.

The ribbon cutting gathered together a long list of politicians, funders, donors and educators to remark upon and honor the milestone achievement that is the Gene Haas Center. The center, part of the Capstone Integrated Machining Technology project, is a partnership between Danville Community College and the Institute.

With a $1 million Gene Haas Foundation endowment, a $1.9 million Danville Regional Foundation grant and an additional $650,000 worth of Haas Automation equipment, the center is state-of-the-art workflow cell training lab. Funding has come from numerous private sector donors with the majority coming from the Gene Haas Foundation.

$1 Million Endowment Creates One-of-a-Kind Workflow Cell Learning Environment

Governor Terry McAuliffe will provide remarks and participate in the ribbon cutting to officially open the Gene Haas Center for Integrated Machining at The Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR). A number of globally recognized partners and Gene Haas, founder and president of Haas Automation, will also be in attendance at a special ribbon cutting in Danville, Virginia on Friday, May 15 at 10:00 a.m. The event will be available via a live webcast stream on IALR's webpage, www.ialr.org.

The Gene Haas Center will include a workflow cell training lab that will provide authentic learning experiences to students who have completed the Integrated Machining Technology Program at Danville Community College (DCC). Not only is the program unique, but it is a game changer for preparing the future workforce. The program will provide a third-year level of learning for students.