Gov. Deal touts Georgia policies in attracting jobs to Trenton

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 10/15/15. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal converses with Senator Jeff Mullis before speaking on Thursday, October 15, 2015 to officials who gathered on the new Vanguard site in Trenton for an announcement that the Semi-trailer manufacturing plant is bringing 400 jobs to Dade County.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 10/15/15. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal converses with Senator Jeff Mullis before speaking on Thursday, October 15, 2015 to officials who gathered on the new Vanguard site in Trenton for an announcement that the Semi-trailer manufacturing plant is bringing 400 jobs to Dade County.

TRENTON, Ga. - Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal visited the northwest corner of the state Thursday to celebrate what will be one of the biggest manufacturing employers for Dade County by next summer.

Deal, State. Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, State Rep. John Deffenbaugh, R-Lookout Mountain, and Georgia Economic Development Commissioner Chris Carr attended a ceremonial groundbreaking for Vanguard, a semitrailer manufacturer. The company's leaders expect to employ 400-450 local residents once the business is operating at full production.

After the ceremony, Deal touted state policies that he says make Georgia an attractive location for companies like Vanguard. In particular, the governor pointed out that Georgia manufacturers don't have to pay sales tax for selling, using or storing energy - the result of a bill passed in 2012.

He said Vanguard will change the lives of some residents in Dade County, home to about 16,500 people.

"Small communities, many times, do not have the job opportunities that will keep their children in the community," Deal said. "This will give us a chance to keep more of Trenton's young people here and offer them good-paying jobs."

Vanguard is a division of China International Marine Containers, the world's leading manufacturer of "dry" and refrigerated trailer equipment. The company employs 47,000 people in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Charlie Mudd, president and CEO of Vanguard, said workers will take steel, wood, suspension and other components and assemble about 10,000 semitrailers a year. He hopes to launch operations here by next July.

The company currently operates a plant in Monon, Ind., a rural community between Indianapolis and Chicago. He said company leaders began looking to open a plant in the Southeast about three years ago, based in part on the number of customers in the area. They narrowed their search down to Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

Mudd said the company picked the Peach State based on the level of support the company received from the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Georgia Quick Start, a program that will help hire and train Vanguard's employees. The company will also receive an $800,000 state grant and will be eligible for job-tax credits and port tax credits.

Vanguard employees work 10-hour shifts from Monday through Thursday, with two mandatory overtime shifts per month on Friday. Their starting wage is $10 per hour, said Peter Cervelli, executive director of the Dade County Industrial Development Authority.

Of all the locations they visited in Georgia, Mudd said he and other Vanguard leaders liked Dade County because they liked the people they worked with there. They also said Trenton's costs for land, labor and construction were similar to Monon, Ind.

People in Dade County, for example, will generally work for a lower wage than people in Atlanta.

During Thursday's ceremony, Dade County Executive Ted Rumley said sales tax revenue collected from the county's SPLOST played an important role in landing Vanguard. The county needed sales tax money, approved through a local SPLOST referendum, to purchase the 150-acre industrial park once owned by former Chattanooga Mayor P.R. "Rudy" Olgiati.

Without the land, Rumley said, there is no plant. And no new jobs.

'This would still be a cow pasture," he said. "There would still be mules here. Remember that when the next SPLOST tax comes up."

Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.

Upcoming Events