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Aviation, Defense Firm to Invest $3.5 Million in Atlanta Consolidation
Trevor Williams
Atlanta - 11.16.09

An aviation, defense and energy products and services company will invest between $3.5 and $4.5 million to move a significant portion of its operations to Atlanta, creating at least 100 new jobs over three years. 

Wamar International Inc. will consolidate three of its core business units in a 100,000-square-foot facility near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue announced from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. 

Wamar business units to move to Georgia include Wamar Energy LLC, which provides maintenance and engineering services for electrical, mechanical and nuclear power plants in North and South America, and Global Tech Services, a Wamar logistics and procurement subsidiary. 

Wamar Technologies Inc., the company's security and defense division, is already in Atlanta. It employs about 15 people at a factory that primarily makes customized armored vehicles for the U.S. military, said Delon Andrews, the unit's purchasing and logistics manager.

The expansion announcement from Dubai came after Mr. Perdue met with officials from the Simi Valley, Calif.-based company at the Dubai Air Show, according to a news release from the governor's office.  

The move will create 100 jobs in Atlanta over three years, the release said.

"That's the minimum [number of jobs], I would say," Wadi Aranki, Wamar International's executive vice president chief financial officer, told GlobalAtlanta in a telephone interview.

The vast majority of the expected job gains will be new positions. So far, Mr. Aranki said, only 10 employees plan to move to the consolidated Atlanta facility from the energy and procurement branches, which are currently based in Pennsylvania and Florida, respectively. 

The consolidation could create 300 jobs in Georgia over the next decade, the release said. 

Georgia is a "good fit" for the company, which set up the armored vehicle division here to be closer to its customers, primarily the U.S. government, Mr. Aranki said. 

Wamar International has offices in Amman, Jordan; Baghdad, Iraq, and a newly established presence in Afghanistan that manage relationships with the military. It also has operations in France, Germany and South Africa. 

The new Fulton County facility's proximity to Hartsfield-Jackson, the world's busiest airport, will make it convenient for the company to meet with clients who often fly in for quick, one-day meetings, said Mr. Andrews. 

Infrastructure like the airport is one of the reasons the company chose Atlanta for the consolidation, said Nabil Barakat, Wamar International's CEO.

“The Atlanta facility will complement our global operations in the fields of energy, security and defense, aviation, procurement and logistics,” Mr. Barakat said in a statement. “Wamar has evolved to be a global player in these fields and believes that Atlanta provides the business environment to support our continued growth.”

For more information, visit www.wamar.com.

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