Communities Put Business Recruitment in Overdrive
Published Feb 16, 2009
The Interstate 75 corridor through northwest Georgia into Tennessee is already known as “Auto Alley.”
It’s no surprise that Volkswagen continues to make news in this part of the United States, but other companies related to the auto industry also are looking to make some news here.
Between now and 2011, when the German automaker will begin turning out vehicles at its Chattanooga assembly plant, VW suppliers will be searching for industrial sites in the vicinity to set up shop.
Jack Hammontree hopes some will choose McMinn County, Tenn. Hammontree is executive vice president and chief executive officer of the McMinn County Economic Development Authority, and in October 2008 he was one of 40 members of a Tennessee delegation led by Gov. Phil Bredesen that flew to Germany to meet with prospective suppliers.
Ideally, they will want to establish operations within 60 miles of the Chattanooga plant, so Hammontree and the other delegation members hope to lure many of those suppliers to their communities.
“Our visit to Germany found us flying into Berlin and then traveling by train to Wolfsburg, where Volkswagen is headquartered. Then we toured the large Wolfsburg manufacturing facility to see their assembly operation,” he says. “The next day, our delegation visited Dusseldorf to participate in a forum with suppliers, then the following day (traveled) to Frankfurt and then to Munich. We had three specific briefing sessions with prospective suppliers to tell them about our respective communities.”
Hammontree says suppliers in Germany are now trying to sign contracts with Volkswagen, at which point the suppliers will contact communities in the Southeast Industrial Development Association region to establish manufacturing and distribution sites.
Courtship Expected from Existing Suppliers
“There are a number of communities in [the region] that are all seeking these supplier companies,” Hammontree says. “As for us in McMinn County, we already have industrial parks in Athens and Etowah that are only 40 and 50 miles from the Chattanooga plant. Plus we already have some automotive-based companies in our county that will be looking to also become suppliers to Volkswagen.”
Those automotive-related companies in McMinn County include Creative Foam Corp., Denso International America Inc., E&E Manufacturing Co. and Johnson Controls Inc. Also doing business in the county is Thyssen Krupp Waupaca, a Germany-based company.
Kathy Johnson, program director for SEIDA, says the region is obviously pleased that Volkswagen is coming, but it already has a good history of being represented by companies affiliated with the automotive industry.
“That includes long-standing supplier companies such as Nissin Brake Georgia in Rock Spring, Ga., Gill Manufacturing in Trenton, Ga., and Shiroki North America in Dalton, Ga.,” she says. In fact, the Interstate 75 corridor through northwest Georgia into Tennessee has been dubbed “Auto Alley.”
Johnson adds that SEIDA is busily preparing regional information for prospective Volkswagen suppliers on the Web site, www.seida.info.
“A lot of data on communities where suppliers might want to locate is on that Web site,” she says. “We want to make every supplier’s move to this region as comfortable as possible, and we want them to move into as many communities as possible that SEIDA represents.”
Story by Kevin Litwin
Photo by Ian Curcio
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