Undoubtedly, one of the hottest cities in the South, not to mention in the nation, is Atlanta. And businesses continue to open and expand operations in the metro area.
The world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and four railroads help make Atlanta a logistically favorite metro.
Over the years, the city has evolved into an impressive national and global commerce center with air, rail and road ties to the major markets of the nation and the world.
However, it is the city’s lucrative proximity to customers in the Southeast that spurred PepsiCo to embark on a new distribution center (DC) in Douglas County, on the western edge of the Atlanta metro.
The 900,000 square foot DC is currently under construction — in the backyard of Coca-Cola, which sports a prominent corporate presence on the Atlanta skyline.
PepsiCo has said that its decision has nothing to do with its longstanding rivalry with Coca-Cola and more to do with the fact that Atlanta offers an ideal base from which the company can access the Southeast U.S. market.
The company will distribute Pepsi, the company’s flagship cola brand, as well as Gatorade sports drink and Tropicana juices, from the facility.
The facility, which will eventually be home to at least 100 employees, is slated to open in early 2006.
Other distribution operations new to the Atlanta metro include Missouri-based O’Reilly Automotive’s 360,000 square foot DC in Clayton County in south Atlanta. The company will employ more than 400 workers at the facility, which will supply service to O’Reilly Auto Parts stores.
In addition, an Ohio-based meat and produce supplier located a 209,000 square foot DC in Coweta County. The Sygma Network plans to hire 400 to 500 employees for its operations there.
Arby’s Serves Up New Jobs
A one-time corporate resident of Atlanta from 1979 until 1991, Arby’s, the quick service maker of slow roasted and freshly sliced roast beef sandwiches, is headed back to Atlanta.
Arby’s is relocating its corporate headquarters from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to the metro.
“We are thrilled to be back in Atlanta, a city that offers us tremendous opportunities for continued growth and success,” said Doug Benham, president and CEO of Arby’s LLC.
The move also puts Arby’s in the same city as its marketing organization, Arby’s Franchise Association, and ARCOP, Arby’s purchasing cooperative, ultimately positioning it to more efficiently serve customers and franchise operators, Benham pointed out.
The company will create 90 jobs at the Atlanta corporate headquarters.
Arby’s is just one company on a long list of major employers that have tapped Atlanta for their corporate headquarters.
With a current base of nearly 2,000 headquarters operations, the metro welcomed eight more headquarters projects during the first quarter of 2005.
Novelis, a rolled products spinoff company of Canadian aluminum giant Alcan Inc., is one of those projects. It located its world headquarters in the Buckhead area of the metro.
“Atlanta is known worldwide for its economic vitality and its vision as a nationally and internationally competitive city,” said Brian Sturgell, president and CEO of Novelis. “We share a similar vision for our corporation, and we believe that there isn’t a better place in the world for our new executive headquarters to call home.”
Nissan North America relocated its Southeast Region headquarters from Jacksonville, Fla., to Cobb County last year. The company said the state of Georgia’s transportation infrastructure, including Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and the ports of Brunswick and Savannah, helped in the decision to relocate to the Atlanta metro.
“We feel this location will afford us a great opportunity to grow the Nissan brand and we look forward to a prosperous future in Atlanta,” said Patrick Doody, regional vice president of Nissan North America’s Southeast Region.
The 21,000 square foot office serves as the headquarters for 54 employees and will provide sales, marketing and service support to more than 150 Nissan dealers in the Southeast U.S.
Life Therapeutics USA rounded out the multi-faceted prism of new headquarters operations taking shape in Atlanta recently with its 70-person facility.
The biological and diagnostics bioscience company established three of its four divisions — Life Sera, Life Gels and Life Diagnostics — at its DeKalb County headquarters.
Though drawn by a variety of assets, business incentives and tax credits also help lure corporate headquarters to Atlanta.
The state of Georgia’s corporate headquarters relocation incentive, for instance, could potentially win a company an advanced job tax credit (up to $5,000 per job per year for five years) that can be used against 100 percent of corporate income tax liability regardless of where the taxpayer locates its headquarters. To qualify for this, the new jobs must pay twice the county average wage rate.
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