Reprinted with permission from
The Courier=Times Online

Force Protection has experienced a variety of delays and setbacks since last summer when it announced plans to begin production of its “Cheetah” brand armored vehicle in the former Collins & Aikman Corp. plant off Halifax Road. To date, however, no Cheetahs have been produced at the facility.

On Thursday of this week, however, during a quarterly conference call for investors, Force Protection CEO Michael Moody announced several changes the company is planning, including the use of the Roxboro facility for training soldiers to operate Force Protection’s vehicles. That training heretofore has been conducted at FP’s facility in Summerville, S.C., near its main facility in Ladson, S.C. It was also indicated that some of the company’s spare parts operation could be carried out in Roxboro.

No specific timetable was given other than the indication that the various changes would be completed by the end of this year.

Force Protection produces two lines of mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles (MRAPs), the “Cougar” and “Buffalo” at the Ladson facility, which also has capability for production of Cheetah, the smallest of its vehicles.

During a dedication ceremony for the Roxboro facility last November, company officials projected that Cheetahs would be rolling off the line here by January, but the company has experienced a series of setbacks since that time, including the military’s pullback of orders for MRAPs. It has also lost some contracts to larger defense contractors.

A management reorganization early this year brought in Moody as CEO in March.

The company said in Thursday’s conference call that it had reduced the number of employees to 1,540, down from a high of about 2,000 last year.

Moody said some of the company’s research and development operations would move to Summerville and also that the corporate headquarters would relocate from Ladson to the Charleston area.

Glen Newsome, executive director of the Person County Economic Development Commission, told The Courier-Times on Friday that nothing that Force Protection revealed during Thursday’s conference call came as any surprise to Person County development leaders. Force Protection officials, Newsome said, “have been real good about keeping us in the loop.”

Newsome remains confident and optimistic for the company’s operations here, saying he had no doubt that the company would “meet or exceed its employment and investment goals” for the Roxboro plant.

Those goals include 270 jobs and a minimum investment of $31 million by 2010. Those goals are targets the company must meet in order to receive up to $3 million in state incentives as well as a $1.1 million incentive package from the county. The county agreement provides that Force Protection must be generating property taxes sufficient to replace that $1.1 million within that timeframe.

Moody told investors Thursday that Force Protection has a $410 million backlog of orders to sustain it the remainder of this year.