Page 8
May 7 - 20, 2021
Greater Wilmington Business Journal
wilmingtonbiz.com
| ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT |
PPD influences regional economy
T
he growth Wilmington-headquartered PPD Inc. has experienced in the Port City is an economic driver for the region, local economic development leaders say. On top of the global contract research organization’s large tax base in New Hanover County and its 1,800 local employees, it can also lay claim to having a big CHRISTINA HALEY role in spawning the region’s clinical research organization (CRO) cluster. “Without PPD’s visionary leadership and long-term commitment to the Wilmington area, we might not have seen such a substantial CRO industry cluster develop here and in North Carolina,” said Randall Johnson, executive director of the Southeastern Office of the N.C. Biotechnology Center. “We’re fortunate these companies and people thrive in our community, and we expect this industry to remain strong and continue growing in our region for decades to come,” he said. In April, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that it would purchase PPD for $17.4 billion. With the deal pending regulatory approvals, company officials have not released details about plans in Wilmington. Johnson said that while the potential impacts of the acquisition on the region remain unclear, if the deal is completed, there may be some change in PPD’s local operation and workforce in the short term. It could also have the potential to grow activity and employment in the long term, he said. PPD’s acquisition continues a consolidation trend that is being seen in the industry, with deals such as LabCorp’s acquisition of Covance in 2015 and, this year, ICON’s pending $12 billion purchase of PRA Health Sciences, Johnson said. “From my understanding, Thermo Fisher and PPD do not intend the acquisition to gain significant efficiencies through merging workforces; instead, the companies appear to be focused on accelerating growth by offering more comprehensive services, creating more streamlined communications and linkages between components of the clinical trial process, and expanding existing
O’NEAL
PHOTO C/O PPD
Looming presence: In April, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific announced that it would purchase Wilmington-based PPD for $17.4 billion. PPD, a contract research organization, helped spur the growth of other CRO companies and jobs locally as it expanded over the years.
and potential customer connections for greater business opportunities,” Johnson said. “The company will continue to need our local clinical research professionals to reach those laudable goals.” Wilmington Business Development, an economic development organization focusing on Wilmington and New Hanover and Pender counties, keeps up with PPD, as it does with many of the area’s corporate entities, said Scott Satterfield, CEO of WBD. About the recent deal, Satterfield said, “We’re in close touch with [PPD], and look forward to adding value to PPD and Thermo Fisher as they unite and craft strategies to meet what we anticipate will be some very ambitious business objectives.” Satterfield attributes the success of PPD in Wilmington to boosting the region’s overall reputation as “fertile entrepreneurial grounds,” setting the stage for companies like nCino, Live Oak Bank and CastleBranch, he said. “PPD also lent credibility to our status as a headquarters contender, helping pave the way for GE Nuclear’s [headquarters] arrival here in the early 2000s,” he added.
WBD officials remain hopeful PPD will retain its influential position as a flagship company in the region, Satterfield said, adding that Thermo Fisher, with operations across North Carolina, has done much for those communities it has invested in. “It definitely has its eye on North Carolina’s life sciences industry in a major way, and that’s all based on talent and workforce,” Satterfield said. “North Carolina’s life sciences economy is one of the great economic development success stories of the last 35 years, and PPD fueled Greater Wilmington’s participation in that emergence.”
Port of Wilmington sees new monthly records Recent figures indicate a boost in activity at the Port of Wilmington in March with new monthly records in container and intermodal rail moves. “It was a really strong month across all sectors. There were a combination of factors that led to the growth,” said Brian Clark, executive director of N.C. Ports. “We did have a surge of vessels that were impact-
ed elsewhere that arrived during the month. And we are seeing growth across many different sectors of cargo, but particularly in the refrigerated containers ... both import and export.” There were a total of 18,782 container moves through the Port of Wilmington in March, up from the previous record of 17,114 moves in March 2018. The port, in its refrigerated container cargo in March, saw a record of 1,686 moves and an increase from the previous record set back in April 2020 with 1,459 moves. N.C. Ports completed its $14 million refrigerated container yard expansion last spring, growing the Port of Wilmington’s capacity to handle refrigerated cargo. The ability to handle more cargo on the refrigerated container side of the ports’ business has been an ongoing piece of its capital plans. Trade to the port has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but has seen some recovery, Clark said. “The north-south cargo, so the Latin American services we have that call the port, have definitely rebounded. They were impacted last year by COVID as well as hurricanes that shut down certain locations where we see cargo coming from,” Clark said. “So that north-south trade has been very strong. We’ve also seen the European trade grow significantly over the last several months.” Activity with Queen City Express, an intermodal rail service operated by Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX, also picked up in March. The month saw 989 containers moved, an increase from the previous record of 784 containers moved in August 2020. The Queen City Express carries cargo by rail between the Port of Wilmington and the Charlotte Inland Port. The rail service was established in the summer of 2017, bringing back an intermodal rail component to the port after more than 30 years. There were more than 33,800 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units) that went through the Port of Wilmington in March. “As we look into the rest of the year’s forecast, we do have a very positive outlook. We’re cautiously optimistic on the last quarter of the year that we will finish ahead of our budget and our plan for the year,” Clark said. “We do take it as a very positive sign.”
