To keep executive focus on plant engineering during their North Carolina site buildout, Italian manufacturer LC America relied on outsourced back-office operations during their U.S. facility launch to handle daily corporate administration. By partnering with Management inSites as their operational proxy for 18 months, LC America’s leadership avoided setting up early internal back-office overhead — keeping executive attention strictly on bringing their state-of-the-art facility online.
Problem
During an extended 18-month construction window, LC America needed its CEO dedicated entirely to plant design, extrusion technology setup, and machinery integration. However, establishing a new U.S. subsidiary introduced immediate administrative distractions: strategies on how to structure their legal entities and daily tasks such as processing contractor invoices, managing client inquiries, and setting up compliant HR policies. Prematurely hiring a full-time internal administrative staff would have inflated payroll before the plant was producing revenue.
Management inSites’ Solution
MI offered consulting advice and served as LC America’s complete U.S. back office through the International Business Incubator (IBI) program. For a year and a half, MI managed contractor accounts payable, client invoicing, reception, and HR policies. As construction neared completion, MI coordinated with local economic development authorities, executive search partners, and community colleges to recruit, train, and structure the plant’s permanent U.S. workforce.
Deep Dive—Serving as the Operational Proxy During Facility Buildout
Protecting Manager Bandwidth Before Groundbreaking
When LC America acquired land in Greensboro, North Carolina for its primary U.S. manufacturing plant, the project introduced immediate regulatory and operational complexities. Recognizing the need for localized expansion expertise, leadership partnered with MI before breaking ground. MI structured the client’s legal entities to protect the Italian parent company’s assets and optimize international capital flow while interfacing directly with North Carolina economic development authorities to secure all available state tax incentives and infrastructure benefits prior to construction.
Operating as the Functional U.S. Subsidiary
Throughout the 18-month construction window, MI operated as LC America’s complete back office out of Charlotte. This operational buffer allowed the client to avoid a common expansion trap: hiring a full-time domestic administrative staff long before the facility is generating revenue. By establishing outsourced back-office operations during their U.S. facility launch, LC America leveraged MI’s shared administrative infrastructure. MI handled vendor payments related to the facility buildout, processed client invoices, answered incoming inquiries, and established compliant HR policies. This proxy setup allowed LC America’s leadership to maintain absolute focus on plant design, equipment import, and technical line integration.
Transitioning to a Permanent Local Workforce
As the Greensboro production facility neared completion, MI shifted its role from temporary administrative proxy to facilitating a long-term operational handoff. Building a sustainable manufacturing presence required a localized workforce capable of collaborating across cultures. MI partnered with specialized executive search firms to who could work effectively alongside the incoming Italian manager relocating on an E-2 investor visa. Simultaneously, to staff the active production floor, MI coordinated directly with local community college programs to design customized technical training for the assembly line personnel — delivering a fully recruited, trained, and structured workforce ready for operations.
Key Learnings
Using an incubator framework as an administrative proxy during a facility buildout allows foreign technical teams to focus 100% of their bandwidth on plant engineering and site construction. Delegating daily back-office operations enables expanding companies to defer hiring full-time internal administrative staff until active production begins, keeping payroll lean during an extended startup phase.
Involving localized advisors early ensures the parent company captures state-level economic incentives and establishes a compliant corporate foundation before breaking ground. Ultimately, pairing an operational back-office proxy with localized executive recruitment and community college workforce development creates a seamless transition from greenfield construction to a fully functioning U.S. manufacturing operation.