Fresh off a $36 million expansion that bought Schaeffler Group USA Inc.’s Fort Mill Plant 1 to close to 500 employees, the German-owned company believes that number will be closer to 550 by 2020.

S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster and about 115 guests were busy Thursday celebrating that last expansion when Michael Pees, Fort Mill 1 plant manager, unveiled the number 544 on a video display. That’s the projection for employment at the factory by 2020. By 2020, the plant will also increase production of its bearings and bearing assemblies by 50% to 150 million a year.

Georg Schaeffler, son of Maria, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, and Maria-Elizabeth…           

Pees says the key to that expansion — beyond a booming business for its automaker customers — is the workforce that Schaeffler has found in South Carolina.

“The foundation of our plant are our employees,” he says.