Chicago-based Asian food company Wow Bao will open its first company-operated manufacturing facility with a $6.45 million investment in the Rutherford County town of Forest City, about 60 miles west of Charlotte.
The manufacturing site is expected to create 88 jobs with an average annual wage of $49,648, exceeding the Rutherford County average of $46,673.
“This new industry further diversifies our economy and will create positions that pay above the county average wages,” says Birgit Dilgert, executive director of Rutherford County Economic Development.
Hiring for senior roles has already started, and those positions should be filled by June. The company expects to start production in Forest City by September, says Chief Financial Officer Matt Fallon.
Wow Bao will lease a 90,000-square-foot former food production facility at 212 NuWay Packing Drive. The company will be cooking, assembling and packing Wow Bao products and distributing them to mass grocery and big box retailers, says Dilgert.
Wow Bao now uses a network of external manufacturers to make its food, which is sold frozen in grocery stores. Wow Bao also serves its food hot in airports, corporate-owned restaurants and through a national network of delivery-only kitchens. Beginning later this month, it’ll also be available on U.S. military bases worldwide, says Fallon. Wow Bao opened a restaurant inside Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2023.
The two products Wow Bao will make at Forest City are bao (steamed buns) and soup dumplings, he says.
“After a national search, we selected Forest City because of the business climate in North Carolina, the experienced food and beverage workforce in the area and the potential for the site,” says Fallon.
Wow Bao is part of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises and was started in 2003 as a fast-casual restaurant brand featuring bao (steamed buns), potstickers and soup dumplings.
“We are excited to begin cooking up America’s No. 1 bao in Forest City and shipping it out to the rest of the country,” says Fallon.
North Carolina gave Wow Bao Service a $180,000 grant from its One North Carolina Fund to help facilitate the company’s location to North Carolina. The grant requires a local government match. The money is not paid unless Wow Bao meets employment and investment targets.