First Toyota, then Amazon, then Boom, now the Volvo Group is putting more cash into the Piedmont Triad’s economy.
The company announced a $41 million investment to move its global financial headquarters into a new expanded campus that bridges Greensboro and High Point.
Volvo will buy the building where it has its U.S. Uptime Center to serve as the financial headquarters, building out the facility that is about two miles from Volvo’s currently leased location. The facility will bring in about 360 employees from financial services for a total of about 1,000 on site, officials said in a follow-up announcement.
Volvo Group North America and Volvo Financial Services are based at two facilities, with the headquarters at 7900 National Service Road and a parcel at 8003 Piedmont Triad Parkway, both of which are near the intersection of I-40 and NC 68. This new building is about two miles from there, the company said.
Greensboro, High Point and Guilford County officials were on hand for a groundbreaking on Monday afternoon. Martin Weissburg, chair of Volvo Group North America and president of Mack Trucks, and Marcio Pedroso, president at VGNA’s Uptime Center, handled the dirt-tossing.
“The Uptime Center is a strategic site for Volvo Group North America, playing a critical role in keeping our customers and their vehicles on the road, delivering goods, transporting people and servicing communities throughout the year,” Weissburg said in a release. “Our purchase and expansion of this facility reinforces our commitment to the great communities and residents of the Piedmont Triad, and we look forward to welcoming Volvo Financial Services to our campus.”
Pedroso said the move allows all of Volvo’s entities in the region to be consolidated on one campus.
“Co-location will enable deeper relationships with our colleagues, and the work environment we’ll create in our new headquarters will help us retain highly skilled, world-class jobs that support the local economy,” he said in the release.
The company had leased the building where the Uptime Center is located since 2014 and, with its purchase, will expand that building by about 62,000 square feet. Ultimately the facility will be 185,000 square feet and cover three stories, with a large atrium and upper-level walkways, the company’s release said. There will be expanded technical capabilities as well.
Volvo Financial Services provides financial services for Mack Trucks, Volvo Trucks, Volvo Construction Equipment, Nova buses, Prevost coaches and Volvo buses in North America and works with Volvo’s dozen other brands, too, the release said.
Volvo is based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and produces a dozen different brands of vehicles, including Mack trucks built under the Volvo Trucks North America, which is based in Greensboro. The company’s other U.S. offices are in Washington. D.C.
In 2012 Volvo Group unveiled a $10 million expansion at its technology center in Greensboro.
This news follows the announcement in December by Toyota that it would build its first plant to make batteries for electric vehicles on land at the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite near Liberty. Amazon is planning – but not announced – another large distribution center in Greensboro. Boom Supersonic announced last month it would build its first jet construction facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro.
Those investments are said to be in the hundreds of millions, and by the time they are completed they likely would add about 5,000 new jobs.
CLARIFICATION: Volvo issued a second announcement to clarify some details about the location and the workforce there.
