Diapers Big Business in Geogia

First Quality plans to expand its Macon operation by building a new, $35 million diaper manufacturing plant that will bring in more than 150 new jobs.
With the addition of new, high-tech equipment, the company will invest more than $200 million in the new facility, which should open sometime next year, Bob Schiek, the company’s director of manufacturing said at a news conference Friday at Middle Georgia Regional Airport.
“We love to recruit companies to Georgia, but it’s especially proud when we have companies that are already here grow,” Gov. Sonny Perdue said at the announcement. “That indicates they’ve had a chance to check us out and they like what they see.”
Schiek said construction will begin “almost immediately” at property behind the current First Quality plant on Avondale Mill Road.
“You should see dirt moving in the next two weeks,” he said.
The new plant will boost the company’s workforce in Macon from 222 to at least 375, officials said.
The company got a package of incentives for the project. The expansion, which had been dubbed “Project Q” during negotiations with local officials, will get a $1.5 million OneGeorgia grant from the state to pay for grading. Another $500,000 grant will pay for a new public road and utilities, and a $100,000 grant from the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority will help pay for a fire-protection water tank on the site.
For more on First Quality’s expansion, read Saturday’s Telegraph.