Decades of Partnership Pays Off as German Manufacturer Plans Return to Waynesboro

A German producer of electrical transformers is planning a new facility in the Georgia city where it opened an initial outpost in the state more than 30 years ago.

Ritz Instrument Transformers, founded and based in Hamburg, Germany, will invest $28 million in Waynesboro, Ga., just south of Augusta, creating 130 jobs.

The new facility will replace a building leased in 2023. That operation currently has 30 employees who will move to the new factory in the Burke County Industrial Park.

In a way, it’s a homecoming for the company. Ritz’s first transformer factory opened in Waynesboro in 1991, but it was sold off in a restructuring. It wasn’t long before the company returned to Georgia. In 2009, Ritz opened its Americas headquarters and its seventh global factory in Hart County, hiring 50 people and investing more than $3 million.

At the time, Georgia kicked in a $200,000 grant for site preparation, and the company spent another $1 million in 2012 to install new equipment and double the workforce.

Now, the company is following the lead of other German manufacturers doubling down on Georgia as their industries evolve, building new plants decades after first putting down roots here.

While the current facility in Hart County makes instrument transformers of varying voltages for utilities and original equipment manufacturers, the new factory will make high-voltage transformers and bus-bar systems that company officials say are in high demand as electrical grids are upgraded to meet the needs of growth industries.

“The U.S. electrical grid is undergoing rapid expansion and transformation as the utility industry reacts to and prepares for growth driven by adoption of electric vehicles, new data centers needed to power AI, continued addition of renewable generation, and an increase in the U.S. manufacturing base,” said Ritz USA CEO and General Manager Scott Flowers in a news release.

The announcement came as Gov. Brian Kemp was on a trip to Italy accompanied by officials from the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Europe office, which is based in Munich.

Mr. Kemp said in the news release that Ritz was among the companies he met with during a 2023 trip to Germany.

“We’ve worked hard to bring opportunity like this to rural Georgia, and we’re proud this project adds even more jobs to one of those target areas following our face-to-face meeting with Ritz during our travel to Germany in 2023,” the governor said.

Construction on the Waynesboro facility is to begin in October. Learn more about job opportunities here: ritzusa.com/careers

See the full news company release below:

RitzUSA-Announces-New-High-Voltage-Factory-JUL-23-2024