The television program 60 Minutes had an 11-minute piece on the town of Asheboro on Sunday night.

The town was held up as an example of the uneven economic recovery that has been plaguing the country.

Among the businesses featured in the piece by anchor Scott Pelley was Miss Jenny's Pickles of Kernersville. Pelley interviewed Jenny Fulton, the company's founder.

Also mentioned in the piece were MOM Brands (formerly the Malt-O-Meal Company), which has been adding workers in Asheboro, and Hyosung USA, which recently announced that it will close its Asheboro wire plant and eliminate 310 jobs.

To view the piece go here.

Hyosung USA is closing an Asheboro wire plant it bought a little more than a year ago and laying off 310 people.

The company announced the closure in a letter filed last week with the N.C. Department of Commerce. The layoffs are expected to take effect between Dec. 1 and Jan. 25 of next year.

The company cited the “changing global business climate” as the reason for the closing, said Bonnie Renfro, president of the Randolph County Economic Development Corporation.

Goodyear built the plant in 1984 and operated it until September 2011, when it was acquired by the Korean company Hyosung. The plant makes steel wire that is used in large industrial and truck tires.

Renfro said Hyosung was the 16th largest employer in the county.
“It’s a lot of jobs and they were high-quality jobs,” Renfro said. “It hurts a lot.”

North Carolina is now home to a new food group: cereal made by Malt-o-Meal.

The Minneapolis-based company today officially opened its first East Coast manufacturing plant, a 350,000 square-foot facility in Asheboro, about 75 miles southwest of Raleigh.

The factory's 133 workers are producing Frosted Mini Spooners and Frosted Flakes, cold cereals sold by Walmart, Dollar Tree, Lowes Food, Family Dollar and other retailers.

The plant has room to add more production lines. At some point, the factory could produce the company's iconic hot, wheat cereal.

Malt-O-Meal was lured to North Carolina by financial incentives worth nearly $4 million from Randolph County and a state grant worth as much as $1.1 million. The company first announced plans to expand in Asheboro in late 2006.

Founded in 1919, Malt-O-Meal makes more than 25 types of cereal and has annual sales of $6.5 billion.