Schneider a mainstay Oconee employer since the 1980s

It first opened as Square D, but today Schneider Electric remains a mainstay of the Oconee County manufacturing community, although many may still be unsure exactly what’s made there. Schneider is in business on highway 28 near Halfway Branch and in a larger building on 123 a few miles west of Seneca. Today the Walhallan who is the manager in charge of the operations uncloaked some of the mystery about the operations. “We are really there to help individuals and companies manage electricity so they can use it safely and efficiently, said Garvin Barker. Speaking to a forum of the Oconee Economic Alliance, Barker said locally Schneider’s employs 367 full-time, hourly workers and 100 salaried individuals. For their customer base, they are in the business to make motor control centers, enclosed drives, fabricated parts and, more recently, box trims for panel boxes. In 2017, according to Barker, the Seneca plant counted revenues from sales amounting to $107 million. In today’s manufacturing world, Barker says market fluctuations require a lot of adapting which Schneider is good at. When asked a question related to trade wars over tariffs, Barker said there is the fear that higher tariffs placed on goods sold internationally could, in Schneider’s case, mean that some products made in Seneca could wind up being made in Canada.