Dell Picks Winston-Salem For Third U.S. Plant

In November, Dell had narrowed the site search to North Carolina's Triad area, which encompasses Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point. Winston-Salem, best known as a cigarette-making center, won out, said Dell, because it best met the company's criteria, which included development readiness, topography, and highway access.

The plant will join plants in Austin, Texas, and Lebanon, Tenn., where the company assembles its PowerEdge servers, PowerVault and Dell/EMC storage products, and OptiPlex and Dimension desktop computers. Dell also has manufacturing facilities in Ireland, Malaysia, China, and Brazil.

Construction of a 500,000 square-foot facility will begin in January, with completion expected in the fall of 2005, Dell said.

The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker expects to employ about 700 at the Winston-Salem factory in its first year of operation, and up to 1,500 within five years.