Ritz-Craft Homes of
Carolina
its Hamlet facility on Thursday.
Dale Dixon, operations manager of Ritz-Craft in Hamlet, said
the state-of-the-art facility has been a benefit to
 |
| Ritz-Craft Homes Plant in Hamlet, NC |
When Ritz-Craft was looking for sites in the Southeast in
2003,
economic development leaders and County Manager Rick Sago — who was an engineer
at the time — teamed up to make
clear choice,
said.
“They (Ritz-Craft) were looking for construction experience
and the availability of construction-type people who could do that work,”
very satisfied with the work force here.”
said his 65 employees are on the upper end of the pay scale and receive
benefits. “We supply a good wage here,” he said.
About eight to a dozen of the homes built at the Hamlet
factory since its inception in 2005 have remained in
built for the coastal and mountain markets.The facility manufactures roughly 50
homes a year,
said. With a stronger economy, the company could churn out as many as 200.
Ritz-Craft spokesman Myles Biggs said the price of a modular
home depends on how much the house is customized. “You also have to take into
account buying land, adding patios, decks, et cetera,” Biggs said. ”But you
don’t have to move in and renovate. You can make it how you want it.”
Ritz-Craft also owns and operates several subsidiaries, such
as Legacy Crafted Cabinets,which Biggs said helps to keep costs down by cutting
out the middleman. Ritz-Trans, a trucking corporation, is another affiliated
company that officials said reduces the homes’ sticker price.
Said Biggs, “The owners want to control each step to help
keep costs down.”
Each individual home is built and put together inside the
facility in a controlled environment and then put on a carrier and carted to
the site, said
“Most anything can be modulized. We’ve built doctors’ offices, duplexes and
condos,”
said. “We’ve built houses from
to the
facility.”
