Hundreds of international companies have established a U.S. beachhead in South Carolina. They've found the Palmetto State a profitable place from which to exploit the lucrative American market and do business with the world.

by TIM VENABLE

Whether it's stocks and bonds or factories and offices, it's the same with investors around the globe. Everyone watches to see where the big players will put their money.

Many of the world's biggest companies, including firms like BASF, BMW, Fuji and Honda, have chosen to invest millions of dollars -- even billions -- in what might appear at first an unlikely place: South Carolina.

At the end of 1997, international companies had invested a total of US$16.2 billion in South Carolina facilities, creating more than 84,000 jobs. Some 68 percent of those jobs, and 41 percent of those capital investments, came in the 1990s alone.

Overall, some 504 facilities in South Carolina are affiliated with international firms, representing 23 countries. The state's hefty international business community is big enough to fill a 173-page directory, International Companies in South Carolina, published by the South Carolina Dept. of Commerce.

"South Carolina is widely considered to be the regional leader in attracting international economic activity," South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Robert V. Royall Jr. says.

South Carolina isn't the largest Southeastern state, whether the yardstick is land area or population. But it's arguably the biggest in terms of its unusually powerful attraction for global facilities. Why have international companies invested so heavily in the state?

Global firms, of course, look for the same business resources domestic firms do: a sound business climate, a good labor supply, competitive operating costs and more. South Carolina has those in abundance.

But one factor seems to predominate for international companies: market access. Many global firms have already taken their successful U.S. export programs as far as they can go, and so putting down brick-and-mortar roots in America is the next logical step.

The Port of Charleston, the biggest port in the Southeastern United States, has provided a big boost to South Carolina's international recruitment activities. It helped bring BMW to the state in 1992.

"The Port of Charleston is a big draw for international and domestic firms alike," Charleston Regional Development Alliance (CRDA) President and CEO Ben Cole says. "It has an aggressive expansion plan. It's recently purchased 1,300 acres (527 hectares) on Daniel Island, connected to the mainland by an expressway. The port will build a new terminal to handle the new 'mega' container ships -- some of them 1,100 feet (335 m.) long. And the harbor will be deepened to accommodate these huge ships."

The port's locational pull is powerful. But history and hard work have also played a role in the state's remarkable international business growth.

"South Carolina traditionally has had one of the country's highest concentrations of textile plants," explains Jim Bruce, head of Fluor Daniel Consulting's Atlanta office. "It goes back to the post-World War II period when textiles, driven by labor costs, starting moving out of New England. Knowing they needed to diversify, South Carolina officials built on what they had, but still moving into more high-tech areas. One logical choice was textiles machinery. A lot of that machinery was made in Germany, with some produced in Switzerland and France. So the state began recruiting those kinds of companies."

Armed with good labor, good technical training programs and a low cost of living, the Greenville-Spartanburg area was particularly successful in attracting German and other textile machinery firms. But in more recent years, the area has attracted the likes of German industry leaders BASF and BMW.

"Then too, South Carolina, like most Southern states a generation ago, saw that it would have to work hard and develop a strong marketing program to make itself stand out in the crowd and attract the attention of international companies," Bruce says. "And it's done that."

Indeed, South Carolina's 500-plus global facilities attest to the state's ample recruitment success. Here's a review of recent international location moves across the state.