Hummingbird A Go; German Company Locating in Toccoa

Project Hummingbird takes flight.

Tuesday, Governor Nathan Deal’s office announced that NIFCO KTW, a German-based automotive supplier of high-quality injection molded components, will locate its U.S. operations in Stephens County.

This is the “Project Hummingbird” officials spoke of weeks ago, approving a project agreement with the company.

The company will locate a 130,000 square foot facility on 32 acres in the Hayestone-Brady Business Park, on Highway 17 between Toccoa and Martin, as its first North American headquarters.

Over the next five years, the company plans to invest $27 million and create 200 jobs, with officials saying more than half of those jobs will come in the first year of operations.

NIFCO KTW supplies automotive manufacturers around the world and the company says that the Toccoa plant will supply parts to BMW and Mercedes Benz USA.

Stephens County Commission Chair Dennis Bell said this is great news for the community.

“Our citizens really needed this, especially something of this magnitude,” said Bell. “To be honest with you, it is such a pleasure to welcome (NIFCO) KTW to the community. This is very exciting.”

Meanwhile, Toccoa Mayor Terry Carter said that the city could not be more proud to welcome NIFCO-KTW to Toccoa.

“The addition of this world-class company will invigorate our economy and put Stephens County on the map for future manufacturing prospects,” said Carter. “We appreciate the state’s strong support and incentives, which ensured we remained a leading competitor during the company’s site selection process. Local leadership stepped outside their customary parameters to express their desire for NIFCO KTW to become part of this community.”

Those commitments made by the city include spending about $300,000 to run water, wastewater, and gas to the company’s building at no cost to NIFCO KTW.

On the county side, it means mainly 25 years of full property tax relief, though it should be noted the county is not currently collecting tax on the property because it is owned by the Development Authority.

The company is also qualifying for state job creation tax credits.

Tuesday’s announcement culminates a long period of work by local and state officials.

Stephens County Development Authority Chairman Brian Akin said this is an exciting day for Stephens County.

“It is a huge win for our local job market and I cannot say enough about our local leadership as we worked through this recruitment process and we want to send out a very warm welcome to NIFCO KTW,” said Akin.

Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber Board Chair Greg Roach also cited that hard work that brought this company here and pledges to continue those efforts.

“We pledge to work with the company in any capacity possible to help them acclimate to our local area,” said Roach. “We are also thankful to have them here with us. There was a lot of prayerful work from a lot of people in our community to help make this happen. Now we all stand ready to move forward in a positive direction to benefit all people involved.”

Meanwhile, Governor Deal said he looks forward to the high-quality jobs NIFCO KTW will bring.

The project agreement called for the company to begin constructing their building later this year with completion expected next year.

Stephens County Development Authority Executive Director Tim Martin said the company could come online in the second half of 2016.

The company also said it has plans to expand its Toccoa site in the future and land is available at Hayestone-Brady for that expansion.