Keebler, the cookie and cracker maker, is teaming up with Georgia Quick Start and the Central Georgia Technical College to train 25 new employees in mixing, baking and packaging Keebler's graham crackers. The elves' graham cracker operation recently returned to Macon from Keebler's Denver bakery, which closed last year.

This won't be Keebler's first experience with Quick Start, which is part of the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. The program has instructed Keebler employees at plants in Augusta and Columbus.

These training programs serve as economic development incentives for companies that locate or expand in the Peach State. In 2002, Quick Start trained 41,801 workers on 315 projects, a 6.4 percent increase in projects compared with 2001.

In Macon, which employs 450 workers, training will be critical for graham cracker production, a trickier process than for other kinds of cookies and crackers. The oven temperature is up to 130 degrees higher, and everything must be done strictly by the numbers.

The 300 foot long, newly transplanted oven produces 60,000 graham crackers every eight hours.

“Employees will be qualified on every piece of equipment,” said Guy Ball, plant manager of the Macon facility. “Quick Start training provides employees standardized ways of running the equipment, instead of learning three different ways by word of mouth.”

Ball explained that without Quick Start, training for the new graham cracker line would have been difficult.

“It would have taken a lot of resources out of the plant,” he pointed out.

Mike Jones, operations manager at the Macon bakery, relied on Quick Start when he worked at Keebler's Augusta plant.

“It's almost like they become part of your management team,” said Jones. “Quick Start resources were there at your disposal to help you create job aids, write up procedures, and create signs that you need to place throughout your operation to communicate some of the how-to's of Good Manufacturing Practices.”

Through Quick Start, Keebler Augusta employees benefited from a range of classes, including sessions on inventory management, employee relations, and warehouse measurements and methods.

“These training sessions are valuable tools,” Jones said. “All we did was schedule the class, and Quick Start would come in with the training materials, and we would treat it like a professional seminar.”

Quick Start provides customized training services free-of-charge to companies creating and retaining jobs in Georgia. A total of 34 technical colleges and four associated university systems are affiliated with the Quick Start program.

(subhed)Wholesaler Moves Down the Road

United Stationers, a leading wholesaler of office and business products, recently pulled up stakes in Norcross, Ga., and moved into a new 600,000 square foot facility at the Horizon Business Park in Suwanee, Ga.

The new building accommodates 300 workers, and combines a warehousing-distribution center with a call center, said Bill Stark, vice president of engineering at United Stationers' headquarters in Des Plaines, Ill. The new operation is about 12 miles away from the old facility.

What did United Stationers want in its new site?

“We were looking for a large enough tract that could handle our requirements and still be in a business park setting with as close access to the Atlanta metro area as possible,” Stark said. “We needed good highway access to get around the city. Roadway access and traffic patterns are big issues for us, because of some of the congestion in Atlanta. The Atlanta region is one of our larger markets, and our new facility services all of Georgia and parts of some of the surrounding states."

Stark offered some advice for other firms contemplating an expansion or relocation.

“Make sure you get out and look at the logistics of the actual site and access to highways, the business environment, and amenities offered,” he said. “There are all different types of business parks or just open land sites available.”

United Stationers is the largest wholesaler of office supplies and equipment in the United States, employing 6,300 workers. It distributes about 40,000 brand name and private-label items, including business and janitorial supplies, furniture, computers and peripherals, to more than 20,000 resellers, such as office products dealers and stores, mass retailers and mail-order companies. The company markets to its resellers through a sales force and print and online catalogs.

(subhed)Plastics Processor Headed to Henry County

Leominster, Mass.,-based Aero Plastics Inc., an injection-molder and manufacturer of plastic house wares and storage products, is opening a 455,000 square foot manufacturing plant and distribution center in the Greenwood Industrial Park in McDonough.

The facility will employ 250, and it represents a $15 million investment. The facility is expected to be in operation during the second quarter this year.

“Aero took an existing speculative building, and construction is being finished rapidly,” said Bob White, executive director of the Henry County Development Authority.

White, who has been in economic development for almost 17 years, is optimistic as spring approaches.

“I don't know if we can say that the market has turned, but there have been some positive signs of recovery here,” he said.

Henry County is southeast of Atlanta, and boasts seven interchanges on I-75.

Executives contemplating an expansion or relocation to Georgia will find an abundance of locations for every development need.

“One factor that's been a plus for us is our supply of sites, both existing or available sites," said Ed Milton, president of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors (ACBR), as well as the senior managing director of regional corporate services for CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Atlanta. “We always have so many sites, because we have such an active development community, and that creates competition and lowers costs. In the Atlanta area, we have a staggering supply of alternatives.”

- Michael Keating is the research editor for Expansion Management magazine. You can reach him at mkeating@penton.com.