A precise figure on the number of jobs Carter’s Clothing will bring to Jackson County is proving to be very elusive. It ranged from 600 “new jobs” touted in the news release announcing Carter’s location in Braselton to 1,200, reported by MainStreet Newspapers in its print editions.
When the Jackson County Industrial Development Authority met to vote on the tax abatement offer to Carter’s, Courtney Bernardi, director of economic development for the Jackson County Area Chamber of Commerce, put the number at 1,200, but Bernardi said the company was sensitive about using that number because 500 of the jobs in Braselton were to be jobs relocated from the company’s facilities in Stockbridge and Hogansville.
Likewise, the press release from the office of Gov. Nathan Deal announcing the Carter’s location dealt just with the 600 “new jobs”, making no mention of other plant closings. From the state’s viewpoint, the main thrust of the announcement was that Georgia would have a “net gain of 600 jobs,” Bernardi said.
On Thursday morning, however, Bernardi said she learned that the company had decided to keep the Stockbridge facility open, but 250 jobs at the Hogansville operation will be moved to Braselton.
“I don’t think we’re going to know (a precise number of jobs at the Braselton building) until all this gets quieted down,” she said. “We know it’s going to be a lot, but we’re not sure exactly how many. It sounds like they’re still trying to work out what all is going under that roof and how many people they’re going to need to fill it. The 600 ‘new jobs’ is truthful, but the total could be as many as up to 1,000, I think, over the next several years — the 2015 timeline we had.”
On Monday, the Jackson County Industrial Development Authority voted to approve a five-year phased-in abatement of property taxes for “Project Ajax,” a “multi-channel distribution center” to be located in the former Progressive Lighting building in Braselton. That distribution center was officially named as Carter’s on Wednesday in an announcement by Gov. Nathan Deal and Michael D. Casey, chairman and chief executive officer of Carter’s, Inc.
Scheduled to open in June, the one-million-square-foot facility will support the company’s e-commerce, retail, and wholesale businesses and create an immediate need for 250 full-time employees. The company expects to invest more than $50 million in the new facility and create more than 600 new full -time jobs in Georgia by 2015.
“Carter’s has been doing business in Georgia for nearly 90 years and our global headquarters is based in Atlanta. We’re proud to expand our presence in our home state,” said Casey. “This new facility is intended to allow us to support growth in our Carter’s and OshKosh B’Gosh brands, improve the efficiency of our operations and better serve our customers.”
Georgia QuickStart, the state’s oldest and most successful job training program, will support Carter’s in developing a high performance workforce for the new facility. The company will begin its hiring process in early May to fill positions in operations, engineering, inventory control, human resources and additional support roles.
A job fair will be held May 9-12 at the new facility in Braselton. Interested candidates can visit www.carters.com/DCjobs to learn more and apply.
“The new distribution center is a welcome addition to Jackson County’s economy, and represents a great opportunity for our workforce,” said Bernardi. “We work hard to attract strong global companies like Carter’s to our community and look forward to contributing to their success.”
Scott McMurray, director of the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Logistics industry team, managed the project on behalf of the state.
Braselton Mayor Bill Orr also issued a statement on Wednesday welcoming Carter’s to the community.
“Braselton offers prime logistics space along one our nation’s busiest highway corridors, which is an obvious advantage,” he said. “When combined with our talented labor pool and our recent designation as ‘recession resilient’ by a national demographics data firm, Braselton is a good place to locate a business. Our reputation as business-friendly town is well known.”
Carter’s achieved its 23rd consecutive year of growth in 2011, surpassing $2 billion in sales. The company delivered 21 percent year-over-year growth, with growth in every business segment including the tripling of its two-year-old e-commerce business.
