Mt. Pleasant furniture company gets second Fast Track grant
Robert Stevens
Managing editor
10-20-2016
MT. PLEASANT—A. W. Carter Furniture Works, a Mt. Pleasant firm manufacturing high-end furniture, received approval last week for its second Rural Fast Track Grant from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development.
Gary Ramos, partner to business founder A.W. Carter, says the $50,000 grant will go toward a $149,925 expansion of the company’s workshop space.
Ramos says the new shop will allow the company to double its output capacity and to provide a wider range of products and services to its customers—specifically building and marketing high-end kitchens, in addition to the existing furniture line.
With the expansion, Ramos says the company plans to create at least five new jobs, including a woodworker, mill operator, mill programmer, salesperson and laser operator.
Of the five jobs created, the company expects to create one position paying at least 115 percent of the county average wage and four positions paying at least 125 percent of the county average wage.
Since Carter launched the company, it has designed and built furniture for LDS temples in San Salvador; Rome; Montreal; Indianapolis; Gilbert, Ariz.; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
Carter started his business in a single 1,500 square-foot workshop at 1345 Blackhawk Blvd. in the Mt. Pleasant Industrial Park. He expanded the shop once before, doubling its size to 3,000-square-feet.
Later, he purchased a second, 2,000-square-foot building that became the company’s finishing shop.
“Since the first grant, we have added eight employees,” Ramos said. “We also built an upholstery shop so we can do all our upholstery in-house.”
A.W. Carter Furniture was also named 2015 “Client of the Year” by the Utah Small Business Development Center.
