Procter & Gamble has quietly added two new production lines and 150 jobs to its Augusta facility over the past six months, throwing off the veil Friday for community and state leaders.
Augusta is the only place in the world making the new Bounce Dryer Bar, said plant manager Marian Futrell. The south Augusta facility is also producing bags of powder detergent under the Gain and Ariel brand names.
"What you have accomplished is very promising. You can see it in the employees' eyes when you walk in," Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle said at the Friday morning celebration. "We want to see more expansions and more job creations."
Juan Bailey, the plant's human resource manager, said the company added $5 million in annual payroll to the local economy through the added products.
The plant now has 240 P&G employees and 360 contractor workers, said Ms. Futrell. The new lines resulted in 15 new company employees and 135 contractor positions, filled by its light industry labor supplier, Marketplace Staffing.
"We've hired what we needed to hire. Our goal is to continue to expand, but we can't predict the future," Ms. Futrell said.
Ms. Futrell said the dryer-bar production began in May but the line for the bags of Gain and Ariel started up in September.
"Unemployment doesn't pay very well," said Jennifer Jackson, one of the new P&G employees.
She was hired in September to be a line technician for the bag powder laundry detergent. The single mother was unemployed for four months after losing her job in the service department at Augusta Dodge, which shut down after Chrysler cut it from its dealer network during the automaker's bankruptcy proceedings.
And she has less fear of rejoining the unemployment ranks since gaining a position with P&G.
"I'm pretty confident about work and knowing I'll have work," she said.
Ryan Fischer, another of the new workers at P&G, was seeking better job security when he applied. He worked for Lowe's for five years before jumping into the new production at P&G in September.
"I was looking mainly to get out of retail, but P&G really had more of what I was looking for, more of a stable job. I feel very fortunate to get the position," said the line technician.
P&G has been in Augusta since 1963. Its mainstay is powder versions of Tide, Cheer, Draft, Ivory Snow and Gain laundry detergents.
It took two years to win the right to produce the new items, officials said.
"This is a testament to all the P&G family here. Corporations make these decisions based on the exceptional value of the work force," said Sue Parr, the executive director of the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce.
Walter Sprouse, the director of the Development Authority of Richmond County, said his agency began assisting local P&G leadership two years ago with economic and work-force statistics.
"We helped them make their case," Mr. Sprouse explained.
"These products have come to life here in Augusta because the people at our site are making a difference every day by working safely, providing excellent customer service, quality for the customers, and being a capable, agile manufacturing organization," Ms. Futrell said.
P&G invested $1 million in the new production lines, Mr. Bailey said.
Both products are now available on store shelves.
The dryer bar replaces the need to use dryer sheets for every load. The product sticks to the inside of a consumer's clothes dryer and works for two months. A four-month dryer bar also is being produced.
The bag versions of Ariel and Gain are meant to target the Hispanic community.
"The product is currently on the shelf on the West Coast, East Coast and Gulf region in the United States," Ms. Futrell said.
Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.
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