NCR Corp. to bring more than 2,000 jobs to Georgia
Published 11:54 am Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The world’s leading provider of ATMs announced Tuesday it is relocating its corporate headquarters to Georgia, bringing more than 2,000 jobs to the state over the next five years.
NCR Corp., a Fortune 500 company, said it will move its headquarters to Duluth from Dayton, Ohio.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said Tuesday the state will help NCR achieve its goal of growing globally.
“This is the culmination, I think, of selling the whole Georgia package,” Perdue told reporters.
The move south is a big blow for Ohio, which as late as Monday made an 11th hour effort to keep the company in the state it has called home for more than a century. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland cobbled together a $31.1 million incentive package for NCR, founded as the National Cash Register Co. in 1884. But it wasn’t enough.
NCR is eligible for several tax credits and incentives in Georgia but state officials did not immediately have a price tag on what the total package would be worth.
NCR’s headquarters move will bring 1,250 jobs to Duluth. The company will also set up a manufacturing center in Columbus, Ga., that will employ an additional 870 people over the next five years.
The company has already been moving into Georgia.
In October 2008, NCR announced that it would relocate key parts of its customer service operation in Peachtree City. That center is expected to create 916 jobs over about two years.
NCR Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Nuti said the company’s large presence in Georgia — combined with Atlanta’s “great logistics and infrastructure” — sealed the deal.
“We already had a larger infrastructure and more employees in Georgia than we had in Dayton,” Nuti said Tuesday.
About 2,800 NCR employees currently work in the metro Atlanta area while about 1,300 work in Dayton. NCR’s retail business is already based in Duluth.
Perdue said a number of NCR employees would come to Georgia from Ohio but the move would also include local hires as well. That would be a boon to Georgia’s struggling economy, which has been hit hard by the recession.
Georgia’s unemployment rate is at 9.3 percent, above the national average of 8.9 percent.
The Dayton area has lost thousands of auto-related jobs, including 2,000 in December when General Motors Corp. closed its SUV plant in suburban Moraine. In addition, thousands of jobs have disappeared from nearby Wilmington as cargo carrier DHL Express prepares to pull out of the area.
“In a way, it’s just another negative event for the region, another notable job loss that’s hit the area,” said Tom Traynor, professor of economics at Wright State University.
NCR produces cash registers, bank ATMs and airline check-in kiosks. The company’s total investment in Georgia is valued at $30 million and its annual payroll will exceed $150 million.
NCR employs 22,400 people worldwide.
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Associated Press Writers Dionne Walker in Atlanta and James Hannah in Dayton, Ohio, contributed to this report
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On the Net:
NCR Corp.: www.ncr.com