ONLY ON WRAL: Mt. Olive Pickle Company to expand to Goldsboro, facilitated by secretive 'Project Butter'

The move was facilitated in part by $22 million in infrastructure upgrades to Goldsboro contained in a secretive state budget item codenamed “Project Butter.”

The North Carolina Department of Commerce allotted the money to the Wayne County Development Alliance in the state’s new budget that passed last week.

With no description of the project included, we reached out to state leaders for more information.

“Project Butter is the codename for an economic development project that has not been announced yet,” NC House Majority Leader Rep. John Bell said.

The Wayne County representative told WRAL News the money allocated to Project Butter would go towards upgrading water and sewer infrastructure in Goldsboro to support a new location for a major agricultural company.

Bell said the company was already in the Goldsboro area, but was considering taking its new expansion out of the state.

“The company and the industry is there, they’re looking at a major expansion,” Bell told WRAL News. “And it is a prominent North Carolina company that we want to do everything that we can to make sure that they stay in North Carolina.”

Bell wouldn’t name the company, and the Wayne County Development Alliance declined to comment.

But multiple local leaders in Goldsboro and Wayne County named the business as the Mt. Olive Pickle Company.

One source in local government said Mt. Olive Pickle would be taking over an abandoned factory near 1300 West Ash street in Goldsboro located 20 minutes down the road from the company’s current headquarters in Mount Olive, where they planned to stay in business.

“It’s an existing facility that was abandoned by a company who left,” Bell said. “And this would be not only occupying this facility, but upgrading the whole entire area which in turn runs right into the city of Goldsboro.”

WRAL News reached out to the Mt. Olive Pickle Company for confirmation of the plan, as well as to ask how many new jobs would be created by the move, but the company declined to comment.

Local leaders said the incentives for Project Butter should benefit more than just the new business.

“It’s not only a win for the company, but also for the citizens of Goldsboro who have had issues with water and sewer upgrades for many years,” Bell said.

People close to this situation told WRAL News that Mt. Olive Pickle would be officially announcing the expansion to Goldsboro as soon as next week.