The U.S. affiliate of a German company that makes components used in steel manufacturing has signed an agreement to put a $7 million factory in Meriwether County, Ga., about 50 miles southwest of Atlanta. 

The factory will be constructed in Meriwether County’s new industrial park, which has so far attracted only international companies. A Korean company, Dongwon Autopart Technology, was the park’s first tenant. It supplies components for the new Kia Motors auto factory in West Point.

Shareholders of family-owned Gustav Wiegard Maschinefabrik GmbH & Co., based in Witten, Germany, and other investors, created a U.S. affiliate, Gustav Wiegard North America LP. Under the agreement with Wiegard North America, the Meriwether County Industrial Authority will provide a 30,000-square-foot building and production equipment, financed by local banks, which will then be leased back to Wiegard, said authority attorney Tyron Elliott. Initially, the factory will employ 30 people, the company said.

Wiegard will also receive a package of state and local tax incentives, said Mr. Elliott.

“It’s a real coup for us to get an international company to come here,” he said. “We hope to get more.”

Meriwether County leaders have been talking to Wiegard for more than a year and sent a delegation to tour the headquarters of the German affiliate, said Mr. Elliott. Meriwether was competing heavily with two cities in Alabama: Auburn and Pell City, for the factory, he added. 

Tycho Stahl, a partner in the Atlanta law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP  who represented Wiegard in the search, said both Auburn and Pell City also sent delegations to Germany to meet with Wiegard executives. In addition, Pell City sent a delegation to an affiliated factory in Egypt, said Mr. Stahl.

Wiegard conducted a wide search throughout the Southeast designed to give communities a chance "to put their best foot forward," Mr. Stahl said. The attorney said he designed a strategy to reduce risk to the German affiliate company. 

Many communities were willing to finance the building and production equipment with no financial guarantees from the German company, he said. In the end, Meriwether County was chosen because of its "very positive business environment," said Mr. Stahl.

"The Meriwether County Industrial Authority, the county, the state of Georgia, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and the local business community all put their shoulders together and pulled in the same direction to make this happen," said Mr. Stahl.

In an e-mail interview with GlobalAtlanta, Gustav Wiegard, managing director of the company, said the search had been narrowed to Georgia and Alabama in part because one of Wiegard’s largest German customers, ThyssenKrupp Steel AG, is building a huge steel factory near Mobile, Ala.

Wiegard’s goal is to have the U.S. plant up and running by the middle of 2010, initially with about 30 employees and eventually expanding to 50 in three to five years, Mr. Wiegard said. Most of the employees will be highly skilled such as machinists, welders and engineers, he added.

"The industrial park was very appealing to us, being located right off Interstate 85 and only 35-40 minutes from the Atlanta airport," Mr. Wiegard said. "Meriwether County also offered a very aggressive incentive package for us and showed a great deal of professionalism and interest in our success."

He also cited Georgia's Quick Start employee training program as a factor in the location decision.

Meriwether County, which has a population of about 22,000, has an unemployment rate of about 13.2 percent, higher than the Georgia and national averages, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

When Mr. Stahl began working with Wiegard to locate a plant site in the Southeast, he approached John Woodward, the Metro Atlanta Chamber’s director of foreign investment, for help in finding a suitable site. Mr. Woodward directed Mr. Stahl to several potential locations including Meriwether County. 

The plant was obviously not suited for an expensive urban location, Mr. Woodward told GlobalAtlanta. One of metro Atlanta’s advantages is that has several counties that are rural but also close to the city and to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said Mr. Woodward. “It’s a testament to the diversity of metro Atlanta’s economy,” he said.

Mr. Woodward praised Meriwether County officials for landing the Wiegard plant. “Meriwether was very aggressive in securing this for their county,” he said.

Mr. Woodward, who also visited the headquarters of the German affiliate company, called the lease-back deal financed by local banks “an aggressive arrangement.”

Mr. Wiegard called the incentives offered by Meriwether "a very important component" in the selection process.

"They show that the community wants to be your partner in success," he said. "Meriwether County's incentives stood out among the other communities and really showed us that they wanted us to locate there and that they wanted to be our partner."  

For more information on Wiegard, click here. 

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