Hall manufacturer breaks ground for expansion

OAKWOOD - An Oakwood manufacturer Friday broke ground for a large expansion that promises 50 new jobs in two years.

German based Bitzer is adding a 95,000 square foot, $10-million facility to its current 45,000 square foot location with 80 employees to expand production of compressors for commercial refrigeration and air conditioning.

Bitzer U.S. president Peter Narreau said the tax reform measure exempting sales tax on energy for manufacturing passed by the General Assembly is important.

"We use a lot of power and that allows us to have a more cost effective product," Narreau said. " That allows us to compete much more effectively with other countries and it allows us to bring more and more business here."

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle was featured speaker at the site off Thurman Tanner Parkway. He pointed to the tax exemption measure as a way to ensure Georgia would attract more manufacturing industry and job expansion.

"When we look to the future we have to diversify our portfolio as a state, getting more manufacturing," Cagle said. "Every one job that's created in manufacturing takes three additional jobs to support it."

Bitzer expects to move into its new building by this fall. Locating in Hall County in 2004, the firm was founded in 1934 and its Oakwood plant is one of only two U.S. locations. The other is in Syracuse, NY.