I hope this is a new trend. It's really good news for this small town!

Holly Pond site that saved jobs after tornadoes will create jobs with new owner

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – HessAire Products plans to create more than 100 jobs in a Holly Pond building that recently helped save hundreds of jobs by housing a factory forced to relocate due to a deadly tornado.

HessAire has purchased the office and warehouse property in Holly Pond with plans to create more than 100 jobs over the next three years as it expands its fan blade business, adds a new product line and even brings production from China to the small Alabama town.

In a deal brokered by Ogden Deaton of Birmingham’s Graham & Co., HessAire Products purchased the property at 11550 U.S. 278 in Holly Pond. The facility includes a 137,000-square-foot manufacturing or warehouse space, a 5,875-square-foot office building and a 5,000-square-foot truck shop.

The property was previously owned by VF Corp., the same company that owns the Wrangler jeans distribution center in Hackleburg that was destroyed by the deadly tornadoes that swept through the state on April 27, 2011. The Holly Pond warehouse helped save those 150 jobs while VF built a $31 million replacement.

Now that those jobs are back in Hackleburg, Cullman’s HessAire is ready to bring new life to the facility.

“The Town of Holly Pond has been working hard to find a new owner for the former VF Facility which closed and then briefly reopened to serve the Hackleburg operation until it could be rebuilt,” said Peggy Smith, director of the Cullman Economic Development Agency. “VF Jeanswear had been so beneficial to the citizens of Holly Pond for many years that it will be great to see that facility active once again.”

The owner of HessAire is seeking incentives for the investment and jobs the new facility will generate. Smith said her organization is working with state and local officials on the incentives. Holly Pond Mayor Herman Nail and Kenneth Walker, chairman of the Cullman County Commission have shown initial support.

“We are proud to announce that a local Cullman industry has purchased the facility and they will be adding new production and employees at Holly Pond,” she said. “HessAire has been a part of the Cullman corporate community since 1997, manufacturing fans for the HVAC industry and our agency is honored to assist the company with their second location in Cullman County.

Jerry Fan, president of HessAire, said through an email the Holly Pond property will help the company increase its fan assembly operations, bringing jobs currently done in China to Holly Pond. HessAire makes fans up to five feet in diameter for the industrial, commercial and agricultural ventilation systems as well as the heating and air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigeration industries.

Fan said the new facility will also allow HessAire to boost its production of propellers and allow it to introduce the production of its evaporative air conditioning products. The company plans to maintain its 50,000-square-foot facility in Cullman.

Manufacturers like HessAire who are bringing jobs from overseas back to the U.S. are part of a trend known as “reshoring.” Unlike offshoring, reshoring finds it is better to produce goods in the same market where they are going to be sold.

Mike Randall, publisher of Southern Business & Development, an economic development publication, has been speaking about reshoring for the past couple of years.

He said rising labor costs in places like China along with increased shipping costs, the wait-times with shipping from overseas and concerns over quality.

“In five years, Chinese wages will be higher than Mexican wages,” Randall said. “The reasons for going to China are over.”

http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/20 ... e_business