WEST POINT, Miss. (AP) – Navistar International Corp. has been awarded a $35 million contract to deliver 40 armored vehicles to Pakistan from its Mississippi plant.
The U.S. Army announced the contract Thursday, saying Navistar, based in Lisle, Illinois, had made the only bid for the mine resistant ambush protected MaxxPro Dash DXM trucks.
Work is supposed to be done at Navistar’s plant in West Point, as well as in Pakistan, and is estimated to be finished by Oct. 31, 2018.
Although the West Point plant had laid off all its workers in 2013, it has since won a series of contracts to build or refurbish vehicles for the U.S. Army and foreign militaries, hiring several hundred workers.
Joe Max Higgins Helps Golden Triangle to Make a Great Impression
“Business Facilities” magazine did a great article following up on CBS’ coverage of our own Joe Max Higgins not too long ago, highlighting his zeal and efforts in bringing manufacturing plants and jobs to our area. Higgins has been working tirelessly for many years to help revitalize our area — and that’s Good for Business!
Excerpt:
Thanks to an interview on last Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast on CBS, the economic development community has a new mega-star, and his name is Joe Max Higgins. Higgins is Economic Development director for Mississippi’s Golden Triangle.
As revealed during his star turn on 60 Minutes, Higgins is a project-building dynamo. Since he arrived in the Golden Triangle in 2003, Joe Max has turned a rural stretch of the Magnolia State into one of the hottest high-growth locations you can find anywhere. If you didn’t watch Sunday’s show, we encourage you to check it out.
Here are some highlights:
Under Joe Max Higgin’s leadership, the area has attracted $6 billion in new investments. Unemployment in the Golden Triangle is now 6 percent and falling fast.
Beginning in the 1990s, the Golden Triangle began suffering an exodus of manufacturing jobs in its primary industries of textiles, toys and tubing, with a majority of the estimated 12,000 jobs it lost leaving for overseas locations. Since Higgins arrived, more than half of these jobs have been replaced. According to Joe Max, the influx of 6,000 new manufacturing jobs to the tri-county region was driven by companies who had offshored production coming to the realization that they could produce their goods and get them to market from plants in Mississippi cheaper than by shipping them to the U.S. from overseas plants.
Joe Max’s in-your-face approach has landed some killer deals for the Golden Triangle, including a Steel Dynamics plant that is one of the most advanced steel mills in the nation.
Higgins’ bulldog tenacity is applied to state and county officials as well as corporate site selectors. He’s succeeded in convincing them to pony up more than half a billion in incentives and tax breaks to grease the wheels of dealmaking in the Golden Triangle.
Higgins told 60 Minutes that when he arrived in the Golden Triangle the area was “paralyzed” by poverty. But he saw some golden assets that could form a foundation for solid growth, including an airport, railways and waterways that connect the area to the Gulf Coast in the south and the Great Lakes in the north.
Higgins told the locals to shake off what he called “a losing attitude” and realize they had the assets to make the Triangle “big and strong and fast.”
Bulldog indeed. You’ve got our full attention Joe Max, and we look forward to keeping everyone up to date on the great progress being made in Mississippi’s Golden Triangle.
Mississippi Steel Processing’s president, Chip Gerber, has been waiting a long time to open up a shop that showcases his passion. On Thursday, September 29th, he will get his wish. that will be the first operating day of his new shop, The Steel Forest Furniture Company at 515 Main Street. Gerber has been making hand-crafted furniture as a hobby out of Mississippi wood and steel for years, and now he’s had the opportunity to increase production of his custom pieces, and share them with his eager customers. Please come on out to show your support for this new type of store, run by a local hobbyist-turned-artisan!
Under New Management: Cattleman’s Steak and Fish
One of Columbus’ best-known restaurants will re-open at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 29th. They are located at 301 Tuscaloosa Road, and they will now be offering an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, in addition to their other fare. They will be open from 4:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, and from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday with a lunch buffet.
Avast, Matey! Krispy Kreme Shares the sweet Booty!
Monday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Krispy Kreme has continued its popular tradition of giving out free donuts to patrons who come in dressed as pirates, or who were at least talking like them, on that day. Store Manager Jessica Carpenter reports that they gave away more than 6,300 donuts to gleeful participants this year.
Winston Plywood and Veneer in Louisville has been awarded the 2016 Corporate Investment and Community Impact Award. They were one of fifteen companies selected for this honor nationwide. After their plywood mill was destroyed by a tornado in April 2014, they got right back on their feet and gathered $50 million in funds to rebuild the plant; it is expected to provide 400 local jobs.
Representatives from manufacturing businesses statewide have been attending the the Franklin Furniture Institute’s annual Manufacturing Summit, and this year was no exception. The event took place recently at the MSU campus. The subject matter for this year included things such as security and defense from cyber attacks. Roughly one hundred attendees were present, including engineering scholars from MSU.
“Today, 19,286 men and women have great careers in furniture industry, manufacturing furniture, in Mississippi and that number has grown recently,” Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Glenn McCullough said. “Payroll from the furniture industry is approaching half a billion dollars a year. It’s a very important part of our economy.”
Golden Triangle, Mississippi – POLICOM Corporation, an independent economic research firm, has released its economic strength rankings for 2016. Data from 1995 to 2014 was used to create the 2016 rankings.
Though its ranking decreased from 10 to 39, Columbus maintained its place in the top seven percent of the nation and the second highest ranked Micropolitan in Mississippi.
Starkville declined slightly, dropping from 216 to 229. West Point, due largely to commuting patterns, has yet to break back into the Micropolitan category.
“The decline in the rankings of the [Columbus Micro] is the direct loss of about 1,500 heavy construction jobs, most or all were involved in factory construction. When the factory work was completed, the jobs disappeared,” said Bill Fruth, CEO of the POLICOM Corporation. “Basically, you declined because you were successful.”
According to the website, POLICOM addresses the condition of an economy from the viewpoint of its impact upon the “standard of living,” of the people who live and work in an area. The highest ranked areas have had rapid, consistent growth in both size and quality for an extended period of time. The lowest ranked areas have been in volatile decline for an extended period of time.
“We experienced one of the largest declines in indirect construction jobs recently, and can attribute our drop mostly to that loss,” said Joe Max Higgins, Jr., CEO of the GTR LINK. “We’re working several large projects now, and if any were secured, we anticipate to reverse the decline in our rankings in the Golden Triangle.”
Greenwood, Natchez, Picayune and Brookhaven were the only four communities to see a rise in rank, and Oxford maintained their position.
Nammo Talley munitions manufacturer announced today that they have been awarded a five-year, $97.2 million contract which will create 12 new jobs in Crawford, Mississippi, for the production of ammunition for the Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon system. Their local facility was designed for the assembly and storage of SMAW munitions and similar products. This contract will allow for the re-opening of the facility, which was temporarily closed down in 2014.
“This is a huge win for our program team and for our operation in Mississippi,” said Jim Mullis, general manager of Nammo Talley’s Mississippi operations. “We have received outstanding support from the Mississippi Development Authority, Golden Triangle Development LINK, East Mississippi Community College Workforce Training and the Mississippi Department of Employment Security in re-establishing our operations here.”
For more information about Nammo Talley, visit www.nammo.com.
WEST POINT, Miss. (AP) – Navistar International Corp. has been awarded a $35 million contract to deliver 40 armored vehicles to Pakistan from its Mississippi plant.
Here are some highlights:
Info courtesy of the Dispatch
LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WTVA) —
