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Exercise-equipment maker Precor is now recruiting workers for the new plant it’s building at Rock Creek Center in Whitsett.

The company wants to hire from 60 to 70 workers for its manufacturing and distribution center. The workers will include welders, upholsterers and general manufacturing employees, according to Kyle Wolf, business-services representative of the Guilford Workforce Development Board.

Wolf said the workers will start Nov. 1.

People can apply for the jobs through the Guilford JobLink Career Center’s online site at www.triadjoblink.com.

Wolf said that people without a computer can stop by either of the county’s JobLink offices for assistance and for access to computers there.

The office locations are:

• l 303 N. Raleigh St. in Greensboro.
• l 901 S. Main St. in High Point, on the campus of GTCC.

Wolf said that Precor will train some workers through GTCC, but most will get on-the-job training.

Precor, based in Washington state, announced in late 2008 that it would build the plant in Whitsett to replace one it will be closing in California.

The deal was nearly called off with the financial system meltdown last fall.

Precor was in the final stages of working out deals with the developer to build the plant — as well as a deal for $294,000 in incentives from the Guilford County Board of Commissioners — when the gravity of the economic meltdown began to sink in.

“In November, they gave serious consideration to delaying the project, but they decided they needed to move forward,” said Richard Beard, a partner with developer Simpson Schulman & Beard.

Precor delayed a California project instead.

The company says it will save money on shipping costs here because 60 percent of its business for exercise machines is east of the Mississippi River.

Precor makes such familiar machines as the elliptical trainers found in many gyms and YMCAs.

It will make weight-training machines in Greensboro.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com