Goodrich to expand, add jobs in Foley

Friday, July 08, 2005

By RYAN DEZEMBER

Staff Reporter

FOLEY -- Local Goodrich Corp. officials announced Thursday that strong sales and new contracts with major airlines in the Americas and the U.S. military will allow the aerospace manufacturer to expand its Baldwin County operations and hire 88 workers by year's end.

The announcement was made at Goodrich's 300,000-square-foot Foley facility, which is split between a department that builds new airplane equipment, such as thrust reversers that help planes stop, wire harnesses and pylons, which hold engines to wings, and another that refurbishes old parts.

"This goes to show that we have a good work force in Alabama, we have good people who will stick with us and work hard every day and that's what it takes in this state to keep our economy moving in the right direction," said Ed Castile of Alabama Industrial Development Training, a state agency working with Goodrich to train workers.

The news is part of a reversal of fortune for south Baldwin County's manufacturing sector. In the economic downturn that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, some of Baldwin's big employers, including speaker maker Peavey, electronics producer Delphi, and Packard-Hughes, an aerospace firm, shuttered plants, moving jobs to other states or overseas.

Even Goodrich was stung, folding its Fairhope operations into its Foley factory, resulting in more than 100 lost jobs.

But that has changed over the last two years with new manufacturers coming to south Baldwin, such as the Alabama Venetian Blind Co. and Pro-Cell, which makes vinyl decking material, and existing firms like Goodrich regaining their footing.

Sales at Goodrich's Alabama Service Center, the name for the refurbishing half, increased by 25 percent in 2004 and similar growth is expected for 2005, said department manager, Stuart Kay.

Van Halfacre, manager of the company's new parts manufacturing facility in Foley, said its business also is growing. For instance, a $750,000, 40,000-square- foot expansion is slated to allow components being made in California to be made in Alabama.

To handle the new business, the Fortune 500 company has hired 94 people this year and seeks additional employees to bring the firm's total work force in Foley to about 600 before 2006, according to the company.

Both Halfacre and Kay attributed Goodrich's success in Foley -- the plant has quadrupled in size since opening in 1984 -- to its employees.

"They're extremely enthusiastic about their jobs and they're proud. That's sort of the Southern culture, I think," Kay said.

Goodrich has the second largest manufacturing work force in Baldwin County after Bay Minette's Standard Furniture Co. and is the second largest employer in Foley behind the South Baldwin Regional Medical Center.

Company officials said Goodrich is looking to fill jobs from entry-level steelers and assemblers to engineers and skilled toolers, carrying wages ranging from about $9 an hour to about $75,000 a year for some top jobs.

The openings will be posted and continuously updated on the company's Web site at www.foleyjobs.goodrich.com.

"Our hiring is based on a schedule and our jobs can change on a daily basis, so if people will go there today and they see something they're not interested in or they don't think they're qualified for, they need to check it tomorrow or the next day as well," said Vickie Langham, a marketing specialist with Goodrich.