Decades on, BMW is still a South Carolina economic engine

For the economy of South Carolina, BMW AG has been the gift that keeps giving.

The German premium automaker moved to build its assembly plant in Spartanburg more than a quarter century ago, but the operation continues to spawn additional manufacturing investment around the state.

In the past year alone, new auto parts projects were announced in South Carolina by Bo Parts GmbH, BorgWarner, Magna International and Grupo Antolin. Although other automakers now have assembly plants in the region, each of those new supplier investments will take place in BMW's production hub. Grupo Antolin is building three new plants in Spartanburg County.

South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt vividly remembers the first suppliers to enter the state after BMW's 1992 announcement.

"Twenty-five years ago there were a handful," Hitt said of the companies. Hitt was a manager of the Spartanburg plant prior to going to work in government. "Now pretty much everything 

in the car is made here, with the exception of the engine, which is imported.

The auto sector has accounted for more than a fourth of South Carolina's total business growth since 2011. That translates to $8.7 billion in capital investment from automotive, along with more than 20,000 jobs. Almost all of the growth can be attributed to BMW's initial investment in the state, Hitt said. 

"It's been a remarkable transformation in a relatively modest amount of time when you think about it-and there's no question that the change-point was BMW," he said.

BMW's initial investment transformed the state's workforce and brought in a vast supplier network. The "low-skilled" local labor that had been heavily employed in textile factories, many of which disappeared before BMW's arrival, became "high-skilled" advanced-auto manufacturers, Hitt said. 

Of BMW's 270 suppliers in the NAFTA region, 42 are in South Carolina, employing nearly 30,000 people. 

"We'd had much success here in South Carolina in the past, but it was nothing as sophisticated as what BMW would bring," Hitt said. "They were the change-agent."