CONWAY, S.C. (BRAIN) — With dignitaries from state government, the mayor and the city council chairman in attendance, the Myrtle Beach Economic Development hosted Worksman Cycles' official ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday for its factory here.
"Worksman Cycles has received wonderful support from the State of South Carolina and Horry County during this transition, and the ceremony was a nice tribute for our efforts to bring jobs to South Carolina," said Wayne Sosin, Worksman Cycles' president.
"Our search for a second location landed us in Conway, where we purchased a one-story building — over two acres under one roof. It took us a year to renovate the building, which now features excellent ventilation, all LED lighting, foam-sprayed insulated walls, security cameras, roof skylights for wonderful natural lighting and three loading docks," Sosin said.
While Worksman has a more than 100-year history building bikes in New York City, the growth in its business required expansion. The company considered expanding in New York, but developing another factory location in South Carolina looked like a better option, in part because the bulk of its bike business is industrial sales to warehouses and large industrial campuses, and that business is concentrated in the Southeast.
Worksman employs about 30 people in South Carolina and expects that number to increase to 40 within a year. As of May 15, all assembly and shipping of Worksman bicycles and tricycles will come from its Conway facility. Worksman's food vending carts will continue to be fabricated and shipped from its New York facility. The New York location will also continue to weld the bike frames, which will be sent to South Carolina for painting and assembly.
The company installed a conveyor-driven powder coat paint system in Conway that allows it to finish its frames more efficiently, and with greater capacity than Worksman could in New York. And Sosin said the finish quality and colors are a big improvement over what was offered before. The company also purchased Holland Mechanics wheel lacers and truing robots to improve its wheel building capacity.
