Wilson County

Life sciences is an industry that excels in Wilson County. Among the bio-pharma companies with major operations in the area are Fresenius Kabi, Merck, Purdue and Sandoz. Together they employ more than 1,000 workers.

• Original home of the Branch Banking Company, known today as BB&T, one of the largest banks in the southeastern U.S., which maintains a 2,000-person workforce in Wilson County
• Approximately 22% of the county’s well-trained workforce is employed in manufacturing – its most job-rich sector
• Presence of established industrial giants such as Bridgestone/Firestone, packaging solutions leader Ardagh Group, and United Technologies Aerospace Systems, a provider of fire detection and suppression equipment for defense and commercial aircraft
• A $35 million fiber optic network available to all residents and businesses, the first-of-its-kind system in NC, was installed in the city of Wilson and accommodates connections of up to a Gigabit per second
• Productive soils account for much of North Carolina’s production of sweet potatoes, flue-cured tobacco, and ornamental plants

• Both CSX and Norfolk-Southern provide mainline rail service through Wilson County
• The presence of I-95, I-795 and interstate-quality U.S. Highway 264/future I-587 puts companies within quick reach of workers, suppliers, customers, and business partners around the East Coast
• With an abundant water and natural gas supply, the county can serve any size industrial client
• North Carolina’s Global TransPark is only 35 miles south, and deep-water ports in Charleston, Norfolk, Morehead City, and Wilmington are two to four hours away
• Wilson Community College offers college-transfer, technical, and lifelong learning programs that meet the needs of students and employers, and the Wilson Academy of Applied Technology supplies a steady stream of workers
• Barton College, a fully accredited liberal arts college founded in 1902, enrolls about 1,200 students across business, behavioral science, nursing, and other curricula