Canadian-based Protocase opens first US facility in Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A major technology company is celebrating the opening of its new manufacturing facility in New Hanover County.

Canadian-based Protocase and its subsidiary 45 Drives Enterprise are opening their first US-based facility in Port City at the Maritime North Business Park, located off Highway 421 in New Hanover County.

Area business and community leaders took part in the opening.

Doug Milburn, the co-founder of Protocase, said the facility will hand-build data storage devices.

“Step number 1 in this facility is assembly of very large data storage servers,” Milburn said. “Massive that take petabytes of data and serve it out in enterprising government networks at really, really high speeds.”

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo said this facility shows that many companies are interested in coming to the Cape Fear region.

“Now we’re seeing them on a more regular basis where companies are really locating and wanting to invest in our community,” Saffo said. “It speaks volumes for all of the people who are involved in this. Everybody working together in a cohesive way is the difference, and that’s why a lot of these companies are looking to locate here which is good paying jobs for our citizens.”

Fellow Protocase co-founder Steve Lilley said Wilmington is similar in many ways to the company’s home of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

“Great sailing, great golf courses, great place to grow up,” Lilley said. “People love to go there, they love to raise their families there and they love to visit. And so when we decided it was time to expand south of the border, we were looking for something similar in terms of culture, in terms of values.”

And just like in Nova Scotia, Lilley hopes the Wilmington facility will on day grow just as large, eventually employing hundreds of people.

Lilley added that they’ve already hired their first 15 employees to work at the facility.