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Geneva County Commission Chairman Toby Seay illustrates a point during a slide presentation of the economic development project as members of the Geneva County Commission look on. ISA Alabama Corp. plans to expand into the Geneva County Industrial Park.
Speculative building for ISA Alabama Corp. in the Geneva County Industrial Park
HARTFORD – A company that manufactures gloves and shoe covers will bring 80 jobs to the Wiregrass with plans to begin operations in 2023.
ISA Alabama Corporation will move into a 45,000-square-foot speculative building in the Geneva County Industrial Park located on State Highway 167 in Hartford. The company’s focus at the Hartford facility will be nitrile and latex gloves as well as boot coverings. The announcement was made Wednesday in a room at Wiregrass Electric Cooperative full of regional elected officials and business leaders.
“We wake up every day, trying to be intentional and working together and working as a group, as a coalition, to do things we can accomplish better as a team rather than individually,” Wiregrass Electric CEO Brad Kimbro said of the regional economic development effort.
ISA Corporation is based in Salem, Oregon, with an additional facility located in Tecate, Mexico. ISA was born out of a company started prior to World War II in Salt Lake City, making Deeks collapsible rubber duck decoys. The company expanded its product line and eventually moved to Oregon. Today, ISA manufactures nitrile and latex gloves, hazmat boots and shoe covers for a variety of industry sectors.
The Geneva County Industrial Park is located adjacent to Wiregrass Electric, and the speculative building groundbreaking was held in 2020, funded through a program offered by Wiregrass Electric’s power distributor, PowerSouth.
The speculative building in the Geneva County Industrial Park sits on 6.13 acres, but ISA Alabama already has plans to expand to an adjacent 6.8 acres for a total of 12.93 acres.
It’s a $9 million investment with an average hourly wage of $18 excluding benefits. A $1.4-million industrial access grant will be used for road improvements around the facility.
Construction on the expansion is expected to begin toward the end of this year and early in 2023 with hiring set to start in the second quarter of 2023. Production should begin in the third quarter of 2023.
During Wednesday’s announcement, there was a lot of emphasis on the state and regional effort made to bring the manufacturing opportunity to Geneva County.
Along with members of the Geneva County Commission, Hartford city leaders and state officials, mayors and city leaders from outside of Geneva County were in attendance. Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Parker was repeatedly praised for the work he did to help bring the company to the Wiregrass.
State Sen. Donnie Chesteen recalled flying out to Oregon with Parker and Veronica Crock with the Alabama Department of Commerce to visit ISA Corporation.
“We came back very impressed knowing that we were going to land a first-class operation here in the industrial park that’s going to provide good-paying jobs for citizens in this region, and that’s what it’s all about,” Chesteen said. “Chairman Seay, the Geneva County Commission, you guys took a leap of faith. This has been a sleepy little peanut field out here for years and years, and we all knew that there was opportunity.”
Geneva County Commission Chairman Toby Seay thanked his fellow county commission members and said it took a regional team effort to make the economic development project happen.
“We came in with this mindset about being serious with economic development, and we had the mindset if we do not invest in ourselves how can we expect anyone else to invest in us?” Seay said. “That has paid off for us today.”
Seay credited regional and state partners in the project: the Alabama Department of Commerce, Gov. Kay Ivey, Chesteen and Rep. Jeff Sorrells, Wiregrass Electric, PowerSouth, the City of Hartford, the Industrial Development Authority, the Dothan Area Chamber Foundation, the City of Dothan, the Houston County Commission, the Geneva County Gas District, the Wiregrass Economic Development Corporation and the City of Enterprise, Grow Dothan and Grow Southeast Alabama, and Southeast AlabamaWorks.
“This project team is the definition of collaboration,” Seay said. “This was total team effort and a total team win.”
Peggy Ussery is a Dothan Eagle staff writer and can be reached at aussery@dothaneagle.com or 334-712-7963. Support her work and that of other Eagle journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at dothaneagle.com.
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Geneva County Commission Chairman Toby Seay illustrates a point during a slide presentation of the economic development project as members of the Geneva County Commission look on. ISA Alabama Corp. plans to expand into the Geneva County Industrial Park.
Speculative building for ISA Alabama Corp. in the Geneva County Industrial Park
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