The success of a home-grown manufacturing business is attracting high-level investment, bringing new jobs – and global attention - to Wake Forest’s economy.
In January 2024, Switzerland-based SHL Medical acquired Superior Tooling Inc., a manufacturer of tooling and molds for the plastic injection molding industry, founded in Wake Forest 40 years ago. The acquisition set in motion the creation of SHL Advantec last November, a dynamic “sub-group” that will provide tooling and automation solutions to worldwide buyers in healthcare and other industries.
While confidentiality agreements prevent the company from disclosing its customers by name, “the first SHL projects the Wake Forest site will be supporting include molds for several high-profile treatments for autoimmune and cardiometabolic diseases such as obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and rheumatoid arthritis,” explains Jackie Su, Marketing Communications Manager for the company. “These are in addition to the existing customers that Superior Tooling has been servicing for the past 38 years.”
In 1985, Robbie Earnhardt founded Superior Tooling in his garage. Since then, the company has expanded its Wake Forest presence into a two-building campus in South Forest Industrial Park, employing a 25-person workforce. Earnhardt’s vision and hard work also helped the company become a strong advocate of apprenticeship programs, collaborating with Bob Luddy, another pioneering Wake Forest business owner, to emerge as a regional leader in the NC Triangle Apprenticeship Program (NC TAP).
“SHL also has a very strong apprenticeship program that began in 2012, and it brings additional skills in advanced machining, mold building, and manufacturing of automated assembly equipment,” says Jackie Su, who is based at SHL’s offices in Taiwan. The company also has locations in Sweden and Charleston, S.C.
SHL Advantec is adding 28,000 square feet of space to its Wake Forest operations while upgrading its existing 20,000 square-feet presence here. “The expansion will be carried out in multiple phases,” Su says. “While the timetable may still change, we expect the first phase of the expansion to be completed by the end of 2025 and the entire expansion to be completed in 2027.” The new building will feature state-of-the-art machining technology and automated robotics. An elevated area will feature offices and conference rooms, and the building will include a cafeteria with outside seating space.
As SHL Advantec moves ahead with its expanded physical plant, it will also embark on plans to double its workforce. This growth will include a handful of colleagues relocating to Wake Forest from SHL’s global sites, including Ingo Herrmann, SHL Medical’s Senior Tooling Director. Herrmann, who led the buildout of the company’s extensive Taiwan operations, is working alongside Robbie Earnhardt to implement hiring plans over the coming months and years.
In terms of the company’s expanded campus, we should expect the space to reflect the advanced manufacturing operations located in Research Triangle Park, says Jonathan Williams, Vice President for Business Development at Focus Design Builders, the Wake Forest general contractor working with SHL on its facility upgrades. “The expansion will include remodeling and updates to the two existing buildings, which have been there about 25 years,” says Williams. “It’s going to be a big step up from what they have now.”
Williams, a lifelong Wake Forest resident, calls Superior Tooling’s acquisition and expansion “proof of concept” of what the Town’s advanced manufacturing sector could become. “We need more places in Wake Forest where people can make things,” he says. “That’s an important story to tell.” While Focus Design Builders’ expertise is in demand by advanced manufacturers across the region, the company has an active local presence as well. Its current projects include Wake Forest’s new downtown food hall as well as the recently opened Mangum Avenue location of Alpaca, the fast-growing Peruvian chicken eatery chain. Williams’ firm, founded in 2010, also remodeled K-Flex USA’s Youngsville headquarters building.
Jason Cannon, President of the Wake Forest Business and Industry Partnership (WFBIP), says Focus Design Builders’ collaboration on the SHL expansion underscores the success of two leading Wake Forest enterprises. “It’s inspiring to witness these two leading local businesses collaborate to bring global attention to our advanced manufacturing sector,” Cannon says. “Robbie and Jonathan are two of Wake Forest’s most dynamic and committed business leaders, and together with SHL’s talented worldwide team, they are spearheading one of the Town’s most exciting new ventures. This acquisition and expansion plants a stake in the ground for Wake Forest as a global destination for advanced manufacturing.”
