NEWSOMS—A South Carolina company has paid $1.3 million for a Newsoms plant that finishes telephone poles and pilings.

Cox Wood Industries bought Atlantic Wood along with a plant in Georgia, where workers peel the bark away from the wood to make the poles and pilings. The purchase makes Cox Wood the largest producer of telephone poles east of the Rockies, said Keith Harris, vice president of corporate marketing.

“We’re expanding our market footprint,” Harris said. “We can ship from Louisiana to New York.”

Atlantic Pole and Pilings has retained its 40 employees and there are no plans to hire more, said Plant Manager Chet Poland.

“We hope that will increase,” Poland said.

The local plant treats wood used for telephone poles, pilings and handrails to protect it against termites, Harris said.

Atlantic Wood of Savannah, Ga., operated the Newsoms plant since 1987. Last year the plant provided wood pilings for the restoration of the Lincoln Memorial Reflective Pool in Washington, D.C.