Expos Aim To Spur Georgia Business, Housing Industries

Navigating a tough economy in the world of small business and the housing industry is the focus of a series of expos running through Saturday.

The events are designed as a type of one-stop shopping for entrepreneurs, realtors and bankers, among others. Organized by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the aim is to connect those groups with the latest information and tools from the local, state, and federal levels.

Yancey Gulley is with Athens Technical College, one of several schools hosting the expos:

"There will be booths from small business, government to government assistance, and housing assistance. And then throughout the day, we’ll have workshops going on as well."

Athens Tech, along with tech schools in Atlanta and Calhoun are staging expos Saturday from 9-to-5. Events are wrapping-up today in Warner Robins, Hinesville, and Albany.

Cessna to Cut Jobs in Columbus

Cessna Skyhawk (Illustration)

Cessna Aircraft says they plan to lay off about 100 workers at their plant in Columbus. There are 650 employees at the west Georgia facility, which make sheet metal parts for their light aircraft.

The job cuts are part of the Kansas-based firm’s effort to trim their workforce by 2,000 – or about 13 percent.

Cessna officials say the worldwide economic downturn is forcing customers to cancel or delay orders for new aircraft.

Cessna employs about 15,000 people worldwide.

The company also plans to order employee furloughs, beginning in March, although details haven't been released.

Workers being laid off will receive 60-day notices within the next few weeks, Cessna spokesman Robert Stangarone said in a telephone interview, adding that the cuts will be spread "across all areas and all salary levels."

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Forbes adds Aflac to 'best-managed' firms list

Forbes magazine has chosen Georgia insurance giant Aflac as one of America's best-managed firms.

This also makes the ninth year the American Family Life Insurance Company of Columbus has made the financial magazine top 400 Big Business grade.

The 53-year-old family-run business is a Fortune 500 company, with some 40 million policyholders worldwide.

Forbes editors chose the company based on an array of data covering one to five years, that include sales growth and stock market returns.

AFLAC CEO Dan Amos, last month announced he was foregoing a 13-million dollar, “golden parachute” severance package as a goodwill gesture in light of the nation's severe economic situation.

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Wal-Mart names Ga. Tech grad to be CEO

Mike Duke (AP)

Wal-Mart announced a surprise change in leadership Friday, naming a Georgia Tech grad as its new CEO.

Mike Duke, who joined Wal-Mart in 1995, will take the reins from Lee Scott, currently the company’s CEO, on Feb. 1.

Duke landed his first job at Rich’s department store in Atlanta — and stayed in the department-store business for 23 years as an executive at department-store operators May Stores and Federated Stores Inc., now known as Macy’s Inc.

As Wal-Mart’s vice chairman of its international division, Duke, 58, has made some key moves, including pulling out of some countries and expanding in others, such as Brazil and India.

Before that, Duke had held various senior logistics, distribution and administration posts since joining the company in 1995.

That makes Duke a “capable” executive who knows the company “inside and out,” said Adrianne Shapira, an analyst with Goldman Sachs.

Duke became chief executive and president of the Wal-Mart Stores U.S. division in 2003 and switched over to head the international division two years later as Wal-Mart increased its focus on international growth.

Duke, who has two daughters and a son with his wife, Susan, graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in industrial engineering in 1971. Duke also has served on the Morehouse College board of trustees since 2005.

Barrett H. Carson, vice president for development for Georgia Tech, said becoming Wal-Mart’s CEO places Duke as the highest-ranking Georgia Tech alum.

“Taking the top position there, I think, puts himself certainly first among peers at this juncture,” he said. “I have goosebumps.”

Carson said that Duke is a very humble and self-effacing guy, the kind who will look for your golf ball in the rough. Carson, who has known Duke since 1997, said Duke was very active on the Tech advisory board, and kept Tech football memorabilia in his Bentonville, Ark., office.

“This will all be very embarrassing for him. At the end of the day, he simply is a really good guy.”

In 2003, Duke helped inaugurate Tech’s Technology Square development in Midtown with Gov. Sonny Perdue and others. In his speech that day, Duke said Wal-Mart couldn’t handle its massive supply chain or millions of daily transactions without innovations led by schools such as Tech.

In 2006, Duke was involved in major changes in the company’s international strategy, including exiting the German and South Korean markets, where the company was faltering before Duke took over.

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(AP)

Planning board offers new way to boost region

A so-called mega-region concept would help spur business development and lead to solving major problems in Georgia and neighboring states--so says a regional planning commission.

The proposal pushes the idea that different cities and communities can find more economic and problem-solving success by selling themselves as a group instead of individually. The Piedmont Atlantic MegaRegion would include communities from North Carolina through parts of Georgia into Alabama.

The concept comes from the Atlanta Regional Commission, a planning group for the metro Atlanta area. ARC chairman Sam Olens says this approach can make it easier to attract international business. And with a down economy, it’s even more critical.

"When you’re in a bad economy, instead of sulking about the economy, let’s make the plans so when the economy improves we’re in fifth gear maximizing that potential strength. So now’s the time to in fact create those partnerships so you get out of the starting gate faster."

Olens says a good example of an area with name recognition is Raleigh-Durham’s Research Triangle.

He says the mega-region concept could also lead to solutions for Georgia’s transportation and water resource problems.

Delta awarding CEO $13.6M for closing NWA deal

Delta and Northwest planes. (Jim Mone/AP)

Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson will get stock awards worth almost $13.6 million beginning next year for closing the carrier's buyout of Northwest Airlines.

Employees of Delta Air Lines, including their new coworkers from Northwest, are also getting stock.

Atlanta-based Delta had said previously it would hand out about 15 percent of its shares to various employees, including almost 10 percent to the rank-and-file. Another 3.5 percent is going to about 700 officers, directors, and managers.

Anderson will get 760,000 restricted shares, worth almost $8.6 million based on Delta's share price at midday Monday. He also gets options on 1.52 million shares at an exercise price of $7.99 per share, which was Delta's closing share price on Wednesday, just before the Northwest deal closed.

With Delta shares trading at $11.28 at midday Monday, those options could give him a profit of $5 million if they could be exercised right away. However, Anderson has to stay with Delta to get the shares and options, with the first 20 percent vesting on May 1, 2009, and the last 40 percent vesting on Nov. 1, 2011.

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(AP)

Major Kia parts en route to West Point

The first load of some 3,500 tons of heavy-duty car-making gear reached the Kia Motors plant under construction in West Point Tuesday.

Two giant metal-stamping presses and other equipment arrived at Savannah Port last week, and will be trucked cross-state to West Point. They’ll be installed at the Korean automaker’s first US plant, due to open in early 2009.

“This is a great example of how Georgia’s strengths enable our successes in economic development,” Gov. Sonny Perdue said is a statement released Monday.

“From our ports to our highways to QuickStart’s work force training, Georgia has all the advantages that global companies look for in a place to create new jobs and new investment,” Perdue said.

128 separate tractor-trailer loads will ferry the gear 300 miles cross-state to the factory site, officials said.

Kia’s $1.2 billion plant is expected to employ some 2,500 workers, and is considered an economic powerhouse for west Georgia.

“The arrival of these presses inside the state of Georgia is another huge step for Kia as we get closer to going into production in West Point,” said Randy Jackson, Kia’s director of human resources and administration.

Secondary and tertiary suppliers are gradually moving into the area, and are expected to boost overall employment figures to some 6,000 jobs for the assembly line and related industries.

“It takes quite an effort between Kia and various state agencies to coordinate the transport of such a large shipment, but Georgia’s ability to facilitate such an effort is one of the main reasons we’re here,” Jackson said in a statement.

Company officials tout that the assembly line will be able to produce 300,000 vehicles annually.

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New Kia supplier touts $15M factory

Front car seat frame. (Courtesy, Johnson Controls)

Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls Incorporated is building a $15 million automotive interior parts plant at West Point, in western Georgia.

The factory will produce seat and door panels for Kia vehicles to be built at the Korean carmaker's $1.2 billion assembly plant nearby.

The firm says the plant will employ over 300 people when it reaches full production.
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Signs on the road to completing the Kia car plant. (file/Dave Bender)

Construction of the 130,000-square-foot plant will begin next week, according to officials.

The Kia plant is set to open in 2009.

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Major Ga. auto dealer to close branches on Friday: report

"Mr. Big Volume" Bill Heard dealership in Columbus. (Courtesy Mike Haskey/Ledger-Enquirer)

Columbus-based Bill Heard Enterprises Inc. will shut down its 13 auto dealerships on Friday, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports.

Heard, once one of the largest Chevy dealers in the country, is also trying to unload its flagship operation in Columbus, according to the report.

The state of Georgia filed a $50 million deceptive advertising lawsuit against Bill Heard Enterprises Inc. in July of last year. The case was one of many complaints against the company, according to the Governors Office of Consumer Affairs.

Heard has dealerships throughout the southeast and Nevada, and closed a dealership in Arizona earlier this year.

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Southwest GA officials: extend I-185

Chamber of Commerce, local and county officials from Albany and surrounding areas say they want the state to extend I-185 down to I-10 in Florida, and route it through their area.

They met on Monday in Albany with Georgia Department of Transportation officials to discuss the proposal, which includes a 32-county area.

I-185 now runs from Lagrange to Columbus. The proposed extension would add about 180 miles to the route and take it all the way to Tallahassee.

Dan Bollinger, director of the Southwest Georgia Regional Development Center says a projected population of over a million people by 2040 makes the highway essential:

“If we have expanded transportation capabilities, I think it would enhance our ability to attract new industry to this area, and really maintain and enhance our growth rates in the future.”

Bollinger says the road would also serve Homeland Security needs, since there are several military installation along the way.

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Low-interest loans for storm victims

People in 42 counties hit by storms earlier this month now have access to low-interest loans. The U.S. Small Business Administration announced the loan after President George Bush designated the counties as federal disaster areas earlier this week. The storms pounded the state May 11th and 12th, killing three people.

Kodak developing its west Georgia facility

The Rochester, NY-based firm plans to invest $15 million dollars in its existing Columbus facility. The expansion will add some 50 jobs to the plant, which currently employs 250 workers.

Local and company officials held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on Friday. The plant makes specialized equipment for the digital printing industry.

Officials expect the project to be completed by the summer of 2009.

New Kia Supplier Opening Shop

Backhoe removing foliage for entrance road off I-85 to Kia plant at West Point. (file photo/Dave Bender)

The State of Georgia has inked a deal with a Korean company, that will manufacture parts for a Kia auto plant being built at West Point.

The Governor's Office says the Sewon Precision company will create 700 jobs and invest $170 million dollars in the LaGrange facility. It'll be built over the next three years at a site not far from the Kia production facility being built in West Point.

The Sewon plant will make chassis and body parts for Kia SUVs. Georgia and Korean officials signed the deal on Wednesday, and the plant will be the company's first facility in the United States.

Governor Sonny Perdue met with a range of Korean officials in October, Sewon among them, in a bid to sign as many local Kia suppliers as possible. Kia's West Point auto plant is scheduled to open in 2009, and the company is opening an internet site for job-seekers at http://www.kiajobsingeorgia.com.

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Lawmakers Lobby for Georgia-Made F-22

Marietta facility. (Lockheed Martin)

Georgia lawmakers are pressuring the Pentagon to change its plans for ending production of the F-22A fighter jet, with some 2,000 Atlanta-area jobs at stake.

The Defense Department so far is standing by its decision to phase out the high-tech plane after 2009. But some analysts say the department may be reconsidering, particularly as a deadline approaches for keeping the manufacturing supply chain going.

"They're getting down to fish or cut bait time," said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a defense research group. "They'll have to find the money from somewhere ... but I think they have a pretty good chance."

Georgia lawmakers are leading the charge for new purchases. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson and Rep. Phil Gingrey recently circulated letters of support among other lawmakers whose states host work on the jet. The aircraft is made by Lockheed Martin, with work done in 44 states.

Along with the plane's economic impact, the lawmakers cite strong support for the F-22A among Air Force brass and the need to replace an aging fleet of F-15 fighter jets. Last month, the Air Force grounded the F-15 after investigating a crash and finding "possible fleet-wide airworthiness problems."

"We believe (ending F-22A production) would be ill-advised and premature," Gingrey, who is from Marietta, where the planes are assembled, wrote in his letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Sixty-eight House members signed the Gingrey letter, while 28 senators joined the Senate effort, the lawmakers said.

F-22A Raptor (Lockheed Martin)

A successor to the F-15, the F-22A Raptor is among the Air Force's most expensive planes. It carries a total price of about $140 million apiece - and almost $350 million when research and testing expenses are included.

Air Force leaders have lobbied to get about 380 of the aircraft, touting its unprecedented combination of supersonic speed, radar stealth and superior air-to-air combat maneuverability.
But the Defense Department has requested 183, questioning the need for more in the post-Cold War era.

Last year, Congress approved a three-year purchase through 2009 for the last 60 F-22As in that allotment.

Pentagon spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said the department has not changed its position on holding production at 183 planes.

Lockheed Martin is slated to deliver the last batch in 2011. Without funding for future purchases in next year's spending bills, the supply chain would gradually shut down beginning in late 2008, the company says.

Along with the lawmakers, the Air Force recently requested that the Pentagon shift budgeted funding for closing out production toward buying a new batch of planes.

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(The Associated Press)

Panasonic plant closure to hit 250 workers

Panasonic Primary Battery Corporation of America plans to close one of three battery manufacturing facilities in Columbus, in the first quarter of 2008.

Plant administrators informed the 250 employees of the decision on Monday, citing competition from Chinese imports. A employee who recently left the company said they had no prior warning of the impending closure of the facility, which makes alkaline batteries.

Local officials of the Osaka-based firm, a subsidiary of Matsushita, said they planned to offer severance packages, and would work with state officials to retrain employees.

The company's two other facilities will be unaffected by the March 31 closure, and will employ over 100 workers, according to a report in the Ledger-Enquirer newspaper.

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SunTrust to acquire GB&T

Regional bank SunTrust Banks Inc. plans to acquire Georgia community bank GB&T Bancshares Inc. for $153.7 million in stock.

GB&T shareholders will receive 0.1562 shares of SunTrust common stock for each share of GB&T they own, according to a statement released by SunTrust on Friday.

Based on SunTrust's Thursday closing price of $69.13, GB&T shareholders will receive about $10.80 per share of GB&T. The $10.80 share price represents a 23 percent premium over GB&T Thursday closing price of $8.80 per share.

James Wells III, SunTrust's president and chief executive, said in a statement:

"With this transaction we're taking advantage of an unusually attractive and timely opportunity to efficiently expand our Metro Atlanta franchise in line with our long-term growth strategies and consistent with our high financial standards and disciplined approach to mergers."

GB&T operates 32 offices in north and central Georgia. As of Sept. 30, it had assets of about $2 billion and 500 employees. SunTrust expects to offer essentially all of GB&T's retail client contact employees jobs after the acquisition is complete.

As of Sept. 30, SunTrust had about $175.9 billion in total assets. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2008.

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(The Associated Press)

Jobless numbers up in September

The state's unemployment rate has risen slightly, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. The rate rose a tenth of a percent, from 4.5 percent in August to 4.6 percent in September. Labor department officials say they added 6048 additional jobless residents to their unemployment rolls in September, and that early reports show the state lost 800 payroll jobs, particularly in the areas of hospitality, business and professional services, retail trade, financial activities, manufacturing and construction. More than 23,000 job seekers, however, entered the workforce during this time. Georgia's unemployment rate was a tenth of a percent higher than the national rate of 4.5%. For more information about the report, and numbers for the state's 14 metro areas, go to www.dol.state.ga.us/pr/current_data.htm.

Manufacturer expands in Polk County

A military supplier broke ground today on a $5 million facility in Polk County. Engineered Fabrics Corporation plans to hire 150 more employees to fill the new plant. The expansion would bring the company’s workforce in Rockmart to 850, making it the top private employer in the northwest Georgia county.

Polk County Chamber of Commerce and Development Authority President Karolyn Hutchinson says many of the county’s 41,000 residents now leave it to work. Others, she says, lost their jobs when the Ford Motor Co. plant in Hapeville and the General Motors facility in Doraville shut down.

“Hopefully, some of those folks who are no longer employed, this will give them gainful employment here at home, rather than forcing them to seek employment elsewhere,” Hutchinson says.

In a written release, New York-based EFC says strong demand from the military drove its decision to expand in Rockmart. When the new plant opens next year, the company expects to produce fuel tanks, de-icing equipment and helicopter upholstery products.