Walmart and Archer Aviation both announced plans to invest in Georgia on Wednesday, and the companies’ plans will ultimately create more than 1,400 new jobs throughout the state.
A new milk processing facility was announced in the south Georgia city of Valdosta, and Walmart said the $350 million location will employ nearly 400 Georgians. Products bottled at the facility will include gallon and half-gallon varieties of whole, 2 percent, 1 percent, skim, and 1 percent chocolate milk for the Great Value and Sam’s Club Member’s Mark brands, and they will be sold to 750 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores in Georgia and across the region.
Walmart claimed the plant will help create “a more resilient and transparent supply chain” and noted its first milk processing facility was built in Indiana in 2018. The company said it expects the Valdosta facility to become operational by late 2025, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, California-based Archer Aviation announced it has secured financing and development agreements to continue its construction of a manufacturing facility in Covington, where the company intends to build up to 650 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles per year.
The concept of an eVTOL was first explored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 2009 when it released a concept video describing a “Personal Air Vehicle.” Since then, eVTOLs have been widely compared to flying cars.
Archer said it secured $65 million in financing, “which represents a substantial majority of the cost of construction” for the facility’s first phase. The company claims it will revolutionize urban travel and showed its first aircraft, the Maker, in 2011. The craft has a range of 60 miles and a top speed of 150 miles per hour, and Archer claimed it will be “100 times quieter than a helicopter, generating only 45 decibels of sound” when cruising at 2,000 feet.
The company said the first stage of its facility is scheduled to be complete in 2024, and Archer’s first vehicle to be sold to the public, the Midnight, will be ready to enter service in 2025. When it has completed the Covington facility, Archer estimates it will be 900,000 square feet and employ more than 1,000 Georgians “over the long term.”
The latest investments were unveiled just days after Governor Brian Kemp (R) announced Georgia was named the best state for business for the 10th year in a row by Area Development Magazine, specifically crediting growth in rural Georgia for the honor. Georgia has seen 343,650 new jobs since first receiving the award in 2013, according to Capitol Beat, which added the state “placed in the top 10 for all 14 categories” the magazine uses to make its determination.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Walmart” by Mike Mozart. CC BY 2.0.
