Procter & Gamble prepares to add 40 employees at Albany plant

ALBANY — Officials at the Procter & Gamble plant in Albany said Thursday that the employee expansion previously announced at the plant should be completed by summer.

P&G Plant Manager Werhner Washington said during the #MadeInAlbanyGA monthly campaign spotlight being conducted by the Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission that the 40 new employees are expected to be onboarded by June.

The new employees will join the 650 associates already working at the plant to produce Bounty paper towels and Charmin toilet tissue.

“P&G’s addition of 40 new employees makes a big statement, not only about Albany-Dougherty County’s suitability as a manufacturing location, but also about the capability of our work force,” EDC President Justin Strickland said. “The Albany plant has always been a valuable contributor to the P&G global network, and the upcoming expansion will only further solidify that.”

Washington said the Family Care segment at P&G, of which Bounty and Charmin products are a part, has had “extremely strong” business, resulting in production records consistently being set at the plant.

“We have been operating at maximum capacity to meet consumer demands,” he said.

The recent boom led to the decision to source more volume out of the Albany plant, leading to the addition of the incoming employees, Washington said.

The development comes as the plant continues to recover from the hit it took during the Jan. 22 tornado that destroyed its outdoor warehouse and forced the plant to revert back to the main facility as the shipping point for its products.

Washington said shipping from the main plant was the original protocol until the warehouse came online. Since the destruction of the warehouse led to the move to demolish what remains of the structure, officials decided to go back to the original method.

“Now that this is happening, it will make us stronger because it will (allow us) to streamline operations,” he said.

The Albany facility is the primary supplier of Bounty and Charmin to the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico. In addition to the production role, the P&G plant also has a development site for Charmin products responsible for gauging consumer needs and translating them into product innovation.

During the monthly EDC staff update, Strickland said a survey was sent out to Albany area businesses to get an idea of how those businesses were impacted by the severe weather that hit in January. Those determined to be affected were connected to resources at the Small Business Administration as well as to contacts dealing with tree removal and city and county services.

He also made note of the Georgia Quail Hunt, which was attended by 21 guests. Several of those guests, the EDC president said, made “significant” donations to United Way of Southwest Georgia for storm relief efforts during their visit.

“That was an event that did not experience any change in the way the event was structured due to the storm,” Strickland said.

Washington, on the note of storm recovery, said a group of P&G employees came to him shortly after the storm requesting permission to rent a Bobcat to help with relief efforts. In all, the group helped about 100 people save $500,000 in debris removal.

Strickland also made note of a leadership program recently started through Locate South Georgia, a collaboration of chamber organizations in the region, as well as an ongoing countywide real estate assessment by Georgia Power to grade properties on how they could be used for future industrial development.