George Thompson, vice president of corporate communications for Briggs & Stratton, says that Auburn provided everything the company was seeking when it conducted a nationwide search for a new plant location in 1994.
      "We were looking to establish several plant locations that were outside the state of Wisconsin," Thompson says. "We were not looking to go overseas. A team of consultants was put together to help the company find just the right states and just the right sites. After an exhaustive search, the decision was made to locate in Auburn."
      Thompson said there were several factors that clinched the deal for Alabama: the cooperation of state and local officials; the presence of a major university; the company's track record of success in employing college students; a desirable factory site; the availability and affordability of under-employed workers; an attractive school system; affordable cost of doing business; great quality of life; right-to-work location; and access to large corporate customers in the South.
      "Auburn had all of this," Thompson notes.
      Neylon especially likes the enhanced market position the Auburn location gives his company. About 90 minutes from Atlanta, the Auburn plant of Briggs & Stratton is close to two companies that are high-volume buyers of small-engine products: Home Depot and Newell Rubbermaid.
      "This was certainly a factor when our plants were built in Georgia and Alabama," says Neylon. "Plus, the headquarters of Lowe's is located in Charlotte. We have acquired several companies, including Generac Portable and Simplicity [which owns Snapper] that sell their products in large quantities to Home Depot and Lowe's."
      For a 97-year-old company based in Wauwatosa, Wis., the Southern strategy is paying huge dividends - and Briggs & Stratton is far from alone in finding a new source of profits in Alabama.
      Increasingly, Northern-based manufacturers are finding Alabama a haven from labor strikes, high taxes, regulatory burdens and high medical costs.Neylon says that it costs half as much to provide medical insurance to a worker in Auburn as it does in Wisconsin.
      Site selectors are taking notice. Alabama claimed the No. 1 spot in Site Selection's annual Competitiveness Award rankings this year (see p. 246) and was voted the third best business climate in the nation in a recent poll of corporate real estate executives (see Site Selection's November 2004 cover story).
      Other northern U.S.-based companies to announce expansions in Alabama in the past year include State Farm Insurance Co. of Illinois (creating 400 jobs in a Birmingham operations center) and North Vernon Industry Corp. (NVIC) of Indiana (creating 300 jobs in a Cullman factory).
      NVIC is incorporating its Cullman castings factory as an Alabama company known as Cullman Casting Corp. NVIC is investing $60 million into a new facility that will be on a 32-acre (13-hectare) site in Cullman, midway between Birmingham and Huntsville. The plant will produce castings for off-road vehicles, forklifts and other applications.
      Site work began in January 2005. The state-of-the-art, 350,000-sq.-ft. (32,515-sq.-m.) facility is expected to begin production in December with about 300 employees.
      The plant purchases fine iron shavings and borings generated from processes at manufacturing facilities producing parts used in the assembly of drive-train components. Borings will be recycled by melting the particles to a liquid and then pouring it into molds to produce a finished product.
      Jack Bodi, vice president of NVIC, says that Webb Wheel in Cullman produces turnings in its operation and could be a supply source.
      "Our impressions of the local community college, technical education programs and the strong public school system all played an important role in determining whether qualified individuals would be available," says Bodi, who notes that only three to five people will be relocated from Indiana. "The remaining work force, including management levels and factory associates, will be recruited from the Cullman County area. We believe in hiring local people and we will become a part of the Cullman community."
      Initially, the company considered sites in five communities in northern and central Alabama, along with sites in southern Indiana and Georgia.
      "The Alabama Development Office played an important role in coordinating a team effort to attract NVIC to Alabama," Bodi says. "They did a great job of bringing in all of the state agencies and the Tennessee Valley Authority to address our concerns and convince us that Alabama was the right state for our new operation."
      The project also received assistance from the Cullman Economic Development Agency, Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT), Cullman Electric Cooperative, North Alabama Industrial Development Association, City of Cullman, Cullman County and other local officials.