JACKSON – When Lowes Home Improvement promised a few years ago to hire upwards to 700 full-time employees at their new Regional Distribution Center (RDC) near Gaston, they weren’t kidding.

Yesterday (Monday) Northampton County Economic Development Director Gary Brown announced that Lowes is experiencing substantial growth and needs an additional 300 workers at their RDC. Once hired, the new employees will bring the RDC workforce to nearly 700 (670).

Lowes, in conjunction with Northampton County EDC, will conduct a Job Fair on Saturday in the auditorium of the Faison Administration Building, located on NC 305 just north of Jackson. Hourly presentations will run from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. The starting salary is $9 per hour plus benefits.

&uot;Lowes starts all its employees as what they refer to as team members,&uot; said Brown. &uot;The company has a very aggressive training program from where they will place these new employees in specialty areas.&uot;

Brown added that Lowes officials have been extremely pleased thus far with the attitude and the work ethic of those hired at the RDC.

&uot;The volume of traffic in and out of the RDC is an indicator of their growth over a very short period of time,&uot; noted Brown. &uot;If the RDC’s in their chain are busy, then that means their retail outlets are busy. In my talks with Lowes officials, they are informing me that their retail growth has been greater than anticipated.&uot;

Brown said that the Gaston RDC, the largest to date in the Lowes chain, is expected to increase to 116 in number of retail outlets served by the spring of next year. The Gaston RDC serves Lowes retail outlets in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the metro D.C. area.

While Northampton is the host site of the RDC, Brown stressed that his county is not the only area that Lowes is searching for employees. He said that Job Fairs would be forthcoming in Hertford and Halifax counties as well as other local areas.