By Delivrine Registre - bio | email
TIFT COUNTY, GA (WALB) - There is new life at a Tift County plant that sat idle for the past 10 months. CFM based out of Watertown, New York will now be located where COI food distributions used to be.
"They are going to be doing all of their Southeastern Untied States distribution from right here in Tifton," said Tifton-Tift County Chamber President, Brad Day.
200 people lost their jobs last August when COI closed their doors. And that was when Tift County Development officials went to work.
"We began using national real estate firms. We used the internet to get attention to that building."
CFM distributes food to restaurants in the Northeast going as far South as Virginia and as far West as Illinois. But they hope to change that with their new Tift County Plant.
"In addition to I-75 going all the way North and going all the way South. Tifton is at the crossroads of Highway 82 going east to west from the ports at Brunswick all they way to Kansas City," said Day.
Right now there are only eight employees in the Tift County location, but more positions are coming.
"This company will add 75 to 100 new jobs and in an economy and in a region that has high unemployment, this is good news to a lot of people."
And though at best, half of the workforce that was lost with COI's closure will be replaced with this opening, county and city officials say they are still excited.
"This is the first time they have been in the Southeast of the United States, and we are just very proud that they have picked Tifton," said Day.
And they hope this opening will be one of many more to come in the following months. Tift County's latest unemployment rate is 11.5 percent.
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