PHARMA TO FARMING: Flour mill expansion highlights Johnston County's diverse economic landscape.

• Author: Ellis, Kevin

A recent $28 million expansion at the state's largest flour mill will help wheat farmers get their crop to commercial bakers who turn the commodity into bread, cookies, tortillas and many other edibles.

The almost two-year project completed in April underlines the path food travels from farms to dinner tables, says Andrew Rutter, a commercial manager for Kansas City-based Bartlett, which owns the mill in the Johnston County hamlet of Wilson's Mills.

"This enables us to deliver on our goal to help feed the world," says Rutter. " Were the supply chain link between the farmers and the producers."

The Bartlett grain milling facility also represents the dichotomy of Johnston County's economic landscape. The Bartlett mill sits 25 miles southwest of the State Capitol, a short distance from U.S. 70, and not far from Interstates 40 and 95, which crisscross in the southern part of the county.

On the west side of Johnston County, closest to Raleigh, two pharmaceutical giants, Denmark-based Novo Nordisk and Grifols, headquartered in Spain, employ a combined 3,400 workers.

For centuries, though, Johnston County has been an agricultural center. It still ranks fifth in the state in active farms, and is one of just eight counties in North Carolina to have more than 1,000 farms, according to the county's Cooperative Extension Office.

"Johnston County is sort of two counties in one," says Chris Johnson, director of its economic development group. "We have seen tremendous growth and investment in the pharmaceutical industry, but agribusiness and food processing continues to be a central part of Johnston County's economy."

The county's population has soared 34% since 2010 to about 227,000, nearly triple the state's 12% growth rate in that period. About 2,500 live in Wilsons Mills. Johnston is often viewed as an affordable alternative to Wake County, which grew by more than 25% during that period, becoming the states most-populated county with more than 1.1 million residents.

"It has a lot to do with the growing population and where customers are growing," Rutter says of Bartlett's decision to expand in Wilson's Mills. It also has mills in Statesville and Coffeyville, Kansas. The N.C. site serves mostly commercial bakers in the Carolinas and Virginia.

Started in July 2021, the expansion added a fourth milling...