One of our state’s largest economic development announcements from two years ago continues to grow its presence here, even though they have yet to sell their first product. But our next guest says that’s just around the corner. Mike Switzer interviews Jamie Lovegrove, a public affairs representative with Scout Motors in Blythewood, SC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Switzer: Hello and welcome to the South Carolina Business Review. This is Mike Switzer. One of our state's largest economic development announcements from two years ago continues to grow its presence here even though they have yet to sell their first product. But our next guest says that's just around the corner. Jamie Lovegrove is a public affairs representative with Scout Motors. He joins us by phone now from his office in Blythewood, South Carolina. Jamie, welcome back to the program.
Lovegrove: Thanks, Mike. I'm glad to be here.
Switzer: Now, at a recent event that I attended at your brand new training facility, in particular, you had student day going on, but we'll talk about that in just a second. Well, one of the presenters mentioned that you've built your first vehicle there at the plant, and that is now in the hands of the internal engineers. Talk about the progress. Where are we right now?
Lovegrove: Yeah, it's been tremendous progress on all fronts across the company. We now have about 1700 employees across the country and about 900 in South Carolina, including close to our first 300 of production associates, maintenance technicians, the folks who are really on the front lines on the factory floor making these vehicles and making our factory run. About 99% of those hires are from right here in South Carolina. So we're continuing to meet our commitments, to the state and delivering on that front. and now that we started having the workforce, you know, we've been finishing, obviously, construction of the factory throughout this year. We've been installing a lot of the high tech equipment and heavy machinery that you use to make vehicles. There's about 700 robots to augment our workforce in the body shop. A lot of the work this year has been installing that. But over the last couple of months, we have now begun to make sort of the very earliest, sort of most primitive prototype versions of these vehicles where we start to actually test the production process, test our paint shop test all the different parts of the manufacturing process. And then that will give us a small number of vehicles that we can then start to test, in different environments. Winter testing, summer testing, crashing, all of that kind of fun stuff, to make sure these vehicles meet all of the capability that we promised to scout customers. And so it's, definitely an exciting time. And that process will continue to evolve and mature over the next year, with customer vehicle deliveries expected to begin
Switzer: in 2028, which, you know, that'll be here before you know it.
Lovegrove: That's right. That's right.
Switzer: All right, now, getting back, getting back to student day, I saw a lot of excited high school Students at this training facility.
Lovegrove: Yeah, you know, we were able to invite, students from really across the Midlands, not just Richland 1 and Richland 2, but Fairfield County Schools, Lexington County Schools. And we had about 75 students there for, National Manufacturing Day on October 2nd. And it's really a great opportunity to teach, students that are already expressing interest in STEM or expressing interest in manufacturing engineering, what types of different career paths might be available to them. And not even just in the technical fields too. You know, of course with we have opportunities for folks in HR and administration, in communications and marketing and all kinds of different roles. And so, you know, we were able to show them our training center, give them some hands on activities, for them to really experience the types of programs, training programs they would go through as a new Scout employee. And I think you could tell on the faces of those students as they left that it, you know, really started to open up for them the possibilities. And I think there are a number of folks who may be future Scouts who walk through our doors that day. So it's exciting to see.
Switzer: And then I noticed a recent press release that, Scout is spreading its love across the state. Some new supplier arrangements have been, contracted in the Upstate.
Lovegrove: Yeah, that's right. So, we have seven suppliers in the Upstate, in Spartanburg county and one in Greenville county that are expanding their operations, collectively investing about $82 million and creating 200 new jobs in the Upstate region to produce parts for our, Scout vehicles. And it's just, you know, a great example of exactly what we've been saying from the beginning. This is, this is not just a Blythewood project or a Columbia project or a Midlands project. You know, this is going to have ripple effects all across South Carolina. It's going to have economic, benefits, for communities from the Upstate to the Low country to the Pee Dee and everywhere in between. And, you know, we had the Governor here and Congressman Timmons and just a great testament to all the progress that is happening, those suppliers are now already working with us on some of those initial validation vehicles as I was mentioning that we're making. And so they're getting plugged into our operations quickly. And, you know, it's also just a great example of why South Carolina is such a strong manufacturing state. We already have a lot of this supply chain ecosystem. It's easy for a company like Scout Motors to tap into that and bolster it.
Switzer: Well, Jamie, thank you so much for the update.
Lovegrove: Absolutely. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it.
Switzer: Jamie Lovegrove, joined us from the public affairs office at Scout Motors in Blythewood, South Carolina. And we will have a link to the company posted at our web page so you can learn more. SouthCarolinaPublicRadio.org where you can hear this show again. And you can hear us again wherever you find podcasts. With the South Carolina Business Review, this is Mike Switzer.
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