Company opens Lake City plant, talks with Boeing

LAKE CITY — Jim Stike, president and CEO of Materials Innovation Technologies, said South Carolina “gets it” when it comes to bringing startup companies into the state.

During the company’s grand opening for its MIT-RCF facility, in Lake City, S.C. Sen. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, thanked the company leaders for the “kind gift” to the community.

The Fletcher, N.C.-based company plans for 120 people to be employed within five years at the site, which will reclaim carbon fiber for automotive and aerospace parts at the Godley Morris Commerce Center.

McGill also put some pressure on Gov. Mark Sanford, who also spoke at Tuesday’s ceremony.

“You might make a private call to Boeing and tell them there’s a little business in Lake City,” McGill said to laughter from the audience.

Later, Stike said, “If you’re not busy Friday afternoon, I have a meeting with Boeing in Charleston,” and the audience laughed as he personally invited McGill.

Stike said after the ceremony that he couldn’t elaborate on his company’s dealings with Boeing, which will build its new 787 Dreamliner in a new North Charleston facility.

“We’re working with them, and we’ll see how that goes,” he said.

MIT-RCF will use a patented process to make parts and also will reclaim carbon fiber out of scrap from Boeing jets, Corvettes or the U.S. Department of Defense, among other sources, Stike told the audience.

“(There’s a) positive environmental impact, so how could you not win when you hit on all of those key things?” Stike said.

The governor said the company’s practice of using “what we have” is “not only good for the environment, but it’s good for people’s pocketbooks, as well.”

Florence County Council Chairman K.G. “Rusty” Smith said the company’s patented process could “revolutionize” the automotive and aerospace industries. MIT-RCF will take materials “destined for the landfill” and make something stronger, safer and lighter than the parts they will replace, he said.

Stewart McKenzie, Midlands Zone manager of SC Launch, honored Smith on Tuesday for contributions to the area’s “knowledge economy,” which includes such high-tech industries as MIT-RCF as well as life sciences and alternative energy. SC Launch is a collaboration among the South Carolina Research Authority, better known as SCRA, and South Carolina’s university research foundations.

Materials Innovations Technologies looked at nine buildings in South Carolina, including some in the Upstate, Stike said. The first building the company examined was the Lake City facility, he said.

In October, Florence County Council approved incentive and lease agreements for the company. The county also has allocated $548,333 for the upfit of the MIT-RCF building.

Two weeks after council’s vote, Boeing announced plans for its South Carolina facility.

“I like to say Boeing was waiting to see where we were going to put our facilities,” he said to more laughter from the crowd. Although his comment was humorous, Stike said he wasn’t totally joking, because small companies historically have led the country out of recessions.

“That’s what we’re trying to do here in Lake City and in the future,” he said.

Materials Innovation Technologies has been moving equipment daily to the Lake City site and should be able to begin its cutting process soon, Stike said. He hopes the facility will be fully operational by August or September, he said.

The company, which has 20 employees, has hired a seven-person starting staff in Lake City, he said. It also has put 15 people through 30 hours of classroom training at Florence-Darlington Technical College’s Lake City site and will place additional employees as the necessary equipment arrives, he said.

Stike told the story of one applicant who had recently lost his job and, as a result, couldn’t adopt an 8-year-old girl in foster care. MIT-RCF hired the man, however, and wrote a letter to the adoption agency, Stike said. Now, the adoption is going through.

“Thousands of jobs are great,” but one job also can make a big difference, Stike said.