KiIA and West Point, Georgia

The KIA way

The town of West Point, Georgia, was a dying town until last year when KIA Motors built a factory to build cars. On tonight's evening news there was a story about how happy folks in that community were to have this foreign company set up shop. A big sign that hits you as you drive into town:

Thank You Jesus for Bringing KIA to our Town

From the KIA USA Web site:

On March 13, 2006, Kia Motors America (KMA), Kia's sales and marketing company in the U.S. , and the State of Georgia executed the Site Acquisition and Development Agreement, which announced plans to construct a $1 billion automotive assembly and manufacturing plant on 2,259 acres of land in West Point, Ga., the first plant for Kia in North America . "We take pride in how far we've come, creating a foothold in the American market, including our first U.S. manufacturing plant — Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia — currently under construction in West Point, Georgia," said Byung Mo Ahn, group president and CEO of Kia Motors America and KMMG. "The state-of-the-art plant will begin producing new Kia vehicles in fall 2009, and at full capacity it will have the capability to manufacture 300,000 vehicles annually. This project is the largest in history for the State of Georgia and is already having a positive impact on the economy. When the plant goes online KMMG will have created 2,500 jobs for which we have already received more than 43,000 applications; additionally, as many as another 6,000 jobs will be created by various plant suppliers."The 43,000+ applications were received in just 30 days, a number that set new automotive benchmarks for both the quantity of applicants during the allotted timeframe and because they were all received online. "The numbers are truly remarkable," says Randy Jackson, director of human resources and administration for KMMG. "These applicants are educated and experienced, truly demonstrating the quality of Georgia's workforce. Georgia and its neighboring states have a prepared, educated and experienced workforce ready to build the future."Currently, KMMG is in the process of hiring salaried and operating team members who will be building Kia's next generation Sorento. Kia is searching for team members who will help reinforce its commitment to sell innovative, high-quality vehicles at affordable prices when production begins in the last quarter of 2009. Construction at the plant is expected to be finished early in 2009. Test vehicles are scheduled to begin production in March of that same year. During the testing phase, vehicles will be examined for quality prior to mass production later in the year.