Why It Matters
Mississippi’s Leflore County gained a significant industrial presence this month as a major energy infrastructure contractor opened a large-scale fabrication shop in Greenwood, adding more than 40 well-paying jobs to a region that has long sought manufacturing investment. The facility is expected to serve utility and energy clients across the broader Southeast, bringing specialized industrial work to a community in the Mississippi Delta.
What Happened
NPL, a subsidiary of Centuri Group, officially opened a 70,000-square-foot fabrication shop in Greenwood on June 10. The facility sits on an industrial site with historical ties to the area and includes a 10-acre laydown yard for staging and materials management.
The shop is designed to serve natural gas, liquids, power generation, steam, and industrial sector customers. It features automated and robotic welding systems along with ASME-certified fabrication processes, positioning the site as a technically advanced operation rather than a conventional manufacturing floor.
Van “Rabbit” Ladnier, NPL’s Vice President of Pipeline Services, credited local and state partners with making the expansion possible. “We are grateful for the partnership and support of the economic development agencies, area leaders, and community stakeholders who have helped make our expansion into Greenwood, Mississippi, possible,” he said.
The project received backing from the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation and the Mississippi Development Authority, the state’s lead economic development agency.
By the Numbers
70,000 square feet — total footprint of the new Greenwood fabrication facility.
40+ — jobs created at the site, described as well-paying and stable positions.
10 acres — size of the laydown yard attached to the facility.
2020 — the year Centuri launched its North American fabrication services division, which the Greenwood shop now expands.
9,600+ — total employees across Centuri’s operations, a company with more than 115 years in the infrastructure services industry.
Capabilities and Services
The Greenwood facility is built to handle a wide range of industrial work. Offered services include pressure piping and pressure vessel fabrication, alterations and repair, steam systems, and data center modules and skids — a category reflecting growing demand tied to the rapid buildout of digital infrastructure nationwide.
On the technical side, the shop is equipped for automated pipe handling, specialty alloy fabrication, hydrostatic and pressure testing, precision laser cutting, and large-diameter piping fabrication. The combination of automated welding systems and certified processes is intended to meet the demanding tolerances required by utility and energy sector clients.
Zoom Out
The Greenwood opening reflects a broader national trend of manufacturers and infrastructure contractors placing facilities in mid-sized Southern cities where labor costs remain competitive and state economic development agencies actively recruit industrial projects. Mississippi has increasingly competed with neighboring states for this type of capital investment, particularly in the energy and utilities sector.
Similar dynamics have played out elsewhere. South Dakota recently approved nearly $30 million in tax rebates for a Smithfield Foods plant relocation, illustrating how states across the country are deploying incentives to attract or retain large industrial employers. Mississippi’s collaboration between the Greenwood-Leflore-Carroll Economic Development Foundation and the Mississippi Development Authority on this project follows that same public-private playbook.
Centuri’s expansion into the state also comes as energy infrastructure demand climbs, driven by utility grid modernization, natural gas distribution upgrades, and the surge in data center construction that has created new markets for prefabricated industrial modules.
What’s Next
With the facility now operational, NPL is expected to begin hiring to fill the 40-plus positions the shop is projected to support. The company’s existing North American fabrication services division, active since 2020, provides the operational framework for the Greenwood shop as it ramps up to serve Southeast customers.
Local economic development officials will likely monitor the facility’s employment trajectory and regional contract activity as benchmarks for the success of the public investment used to attract the project. Further expansion of the laydown yard or facility capacity has not been announced.