Nov. 23—FAIRMONT — Officials held a symbolic ground breaking ceremony Friday for a new $35 million manufacturing facility amid fanfare with the governor and Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary.
Prime 6, producer of biofuel products, landed just outside Fairmont in the former Philips Lighting Co. building after a deal in Buckhannon fell through due to environmental issues. The New York City-based company wanted to locate a factory in West Virginia because the state holds a manufacturing advantage for the company.
"This state has a lot of the raw materials, all the hardware, to set up shop and call home," Riki Franco, CEO of Prime 6, said. "We basically collect any kind of organic biomass. So, sawdust, wood chips, we compress it back into wood and we base our products off of that. We have our wood products. We have our charcoal products, biochar. Everything basically comes or originates from the same kind of raw materials which are abundantly here."
The company turns biomass into fuel, which Franco said, can be used in anything from cooking to generating power. Franco said the amount of heat energy her product produces is as high as coal. She added companies that run on coal right now can potentially supplement some of that coal with biofuel from Prime 6. The factory itself will run on its own fuel and some outside electricity, but Franco wants to eventually power up other companies and industrial partners.
"The capacity does grow, we won't have any issues covering in terms of output what's coming out of here," Oron Franco, Riki's husband and chief operating officer of Prime 6, said. "The only limitation we have is the amount of raw materials. Which, I don't think there's a shortage of around here."
Franco said Gov. Jim Justice's administration turned over every stone it could to ensure Prime 6 stayed in West Virginia even after the Buckhannon site fell through. The business will bring between 75-100 jobs with an annual salary of $60,000 each to the area. Riki Franco said although the business plans to start hiring immediately for their initial positions, they hope to be up and running in about four or five months. She added they need people to start applying as soon as possible.
Franco's business took four years to build after she and her husband appeared on "Shark Tank." Shark Tank panelist "Mr. Wonderful" Kevin O'Leary, and others, also highlighted the fact that Prime 6 is a woman-owned business.
"I've been doing Shark Tank for 16 years and over 70% of my successes have been companies run by women," O'Leary said. "They don't know each other, they're in different sectors, but you want something done — give it to a busy mother. This woman is a force of nature."