HTI returns to its Greenwood roots

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HTI went back to the beginning when the company opened a Greenwood regional headquarters this week in its original hometown.

Human Technologies Inc. was launched in 1999 in Greenwood because it was a good meeting place for the founders, two of them from Greenville and two from Augusta, said CEO Herb Dew on Wednesday, shortly before cutting the ribbon to open the doors at 500 Montague Ave.

Not long after opening that original office, the company decided they had to have a Greenville location, because that’s where the rapid growth was taking place, and growth is important to a human resource advisory firm.

Dew said they never wanted to close the original Greenwood office and kept it open for a while, but the economy experienced a slowdown soon after and in 2002, the office was closed. The economy rebounded elsewhere in the years that followed, however, and the company has 16 offices in places that have experienced robust hiring. Tew said he thinks it is Greenwood’s time to rise.

“When we started in 1999, we saw Greenwood as being a really good little manufacturing center,” he said. “We always have been watching Greenwood. What’s attractive about Greenwood is we’ve got a four-year college here; we’ve got a great tech school system here. The city and county government work really well together.”

Greenwood also pulls in a workforce from other communities, where people are willing to drive 30 miles for a good job, Dew said.

“Greenwood’s always been attractive for that reason so — seeing the growth in South Carolina in general — companies are going to come into Greenwood because they’re going to need to, because the labor pool in the Upstate is becoming really stressed,” Dew said. “So we decided it’s time to be back in Greenwood and put in a full service branch so we can support blue collar needs for hiring as well as white collar, and (we’re) doing training as well.”

Greenwood growth also was part of the decision. Greenwood County has made several industrial announcements over the last couple of years, including expansion of the existing Fuji facilities and a $600 million Teijin plant  going into production soon.

“There are already a couple of plants that are looking at this area or launching in this area,” Dew said. “I feel good about Greenwood’s future. I think they have all the right pieces to be successful.”

HTI services include professional recruiting, industrial staffing, human resource consulting and logistics/warehouse management services.