CALHOUN COUNTY, S.C. — Local construction equipment supplier Blanchard Machinery Company has announced it is investing $46 million dollars to expand operations into Calhoun County.
The company will be purchasing approximately 60 acres in the Sandy Run Industrial Park, at the intersection of I-26 and Hwy 21 in Gaston, where it will build a 150,000-square-foot facility. Once complete, Blanchard expects to transfer 150 existing jobs from its Lexington County operations to the new facility.
Some operations -- such as corporate administration, machine sales, used parts and Blanchard Energy -- will remain in West Columbia while it expands the parts, service, component rebuilds, and complete machine rebuilds divisions will relocate.
Blanchard was founded in 1952 and is Caterpillar's exclusive distributor for machine and generator sales, rental, machine parts and service in South Carolina. The company serves a wide range of industries including construction, mining, agriculture, forestry, electric power generation and marine power.
Operations and transitions are scheduled to be complete in 2026.