Around Alabama, national companies, internationally owned subsidiaries and even the state’s Department of Transportation are building billion-dollar projects that are giving local cities and towns a welcome boost to their economies.
Last year, we introduced four of these projects — a solar plant in Lawrence County, a J.M. Smucker plant near Birmingham, an aluminum plant in Baldwin County and a bridge to ease traffic across the waters between Mobile and Baldwin counties.
Since then, two are open; two are still in the works.
Here’s a quick status report.
The J.M. Smucker Co.
On Nov. 7, the J.M. Smucker Co. held a grand opening for its new $1.1 billion, 900,000-square-foot plant in McCalla, a town located 19 miles southwest of Birmingham in Jefferson County.
The consumer-packaged goods company, which is headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, produces everything from frozen, handheld sandwiches, sweet baked goods, peanut butter, jams and preserves, to pet food, pet snacks and well-known coffee brands like Folgers, Dunkin’ and Café Bustelo. The company also produces packaged goods for schools, offices, restaurants and hotels.
The company spokespersons say the McCalla factory will begin producing Smucker’s Uncrustables sandwiches in 2025, increasing the company’s current production capacity for the Uncrustables brand to help meet demand.
Nicole Newell, J.M. Smucker director of operations, says the McCalla plant is already producing salable product.
The company says the new facility is its third manufacturing location to produce the Smucker’s Uncrustables brand. The other locations are in Kentucky and Colorado.
And Newell says that while the company is still completing some aspects of the project, it is confident the final cost will be in line with the original projections.
The company announced that the new plant’s construction and production would create up to 750 jobs.
And today, the company is hiring.
“We are hiring for select roles to help support our facility workforce. Most technician hiring is being managed by Alabama Industrial Development Training (AIDT),” Newell says.
“We also have current roles we are recruiting for on the Smucker Careers website.”
Jobs include warehouse supervisor, plant buyer, facilities/utilities technician, electrical and instrumentation technician, controls engineering lead, maintenance mechanics and education and training coordinators.
Novelis
In the fall of 2022, Novelis broke ground to begin construction on its new greenfield aluminum rolling and recycling plant in Bay Minette.
The original estimated cost for the plant was $2.5 billion. But a third quarter earnings report for the fiscal year 2024 on Feb. 12 reported that the cost of the project would skyrocket by nearly 65%.
Novelis spokesperson Callie Cox confirms that the new estimated cost is around $4.1 billion.
“The major driver of the cost increase was related to civil engineering and construction of the site, the additional construction materials due to the specific requirements for the site location and plant configuration,” Cox says.
“Inflation on both labor and materials created additional cost increases. Since our cost update nearly a year ago, the project has made significant progress, staying on track and consistently meeting key milestones as we lay the groundwork for long-term success,” she says.
Cox says the company expects to commission the new factory in the second half of 2026.
Novelis is a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited, the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. The Aditya Birla Group is a strong global player in the metals sector.
Cox says that approximately two-thirds of the production at the plant will support domestic beverage packaging customers, as local demand currently outpaces local supply.
The Novelis plant, says Cox, is expected to create up to 1,000 jobs.
First Solar Inc.
In Lawrence County, First Solar Inc., a global solar technology company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona., recently inaugurated its $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in the small town of Trinity, 6.5 miles west of Decatur.
The new plant produces First Solar’s Series 7 TR1 solar panel modules.
In its press statement on Sept. 26, First Solar says its new, fully vertically integrated thin-film solar manufacturing facility will use Alabama sourced steel. It also will add 3.5 gigawatts of fully vertically integrated nameplate solar manufacturing capacity in the United States.
In the same press statement, Alabama Department of Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair said, “First Solar’s $1.1 billion manufacturing facility in Lawrence County is likely the largest investment project ever undertaken in one of our rural counties, demonstrating that our rural communities are prepared to meet any challenge.”
The First Solar plant promises to create more than 800 new energy technology manufacturing jobs in the state.
Besides the Lawrence County plant, First Solar operates three other factories in Ohio, bringing the company’s domestic nameplate manufacturing capacity to almost 11 gigawatts. The company says that once fully ramped, the plant will bring the company’s global capacity to over 21 gigawatts.
Interstate 10 Bridge and Bayway Project
Down south in the Port City, the State of Alabama plans for its I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway project got a boost this summer, thanks to a federal grant.
The Alabama Department of Transportation plans to build a new six-lane, 215-foot-tall cable-stay bridge and a 7.5-mile elevated bayway. The project is designed to ease traffic congestion in the area and the state says the project will cost an estimated $3.5 billion.
In July, the project got a boost from a $550 million federal grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bridge Investment Program.
In a press statement from Gov. Kay Ivey’s office, ALDOT Chief Engineer Ed Austin said the grant would allow the project to proceed as the agency wraps up the loan process in the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program, which offers credit assistance for qualified regional and national projects.
Mobile River Bridge Project Manager Edwin Perry added that ALDOT was still in the design phase, with about 40-50% of that completed.
ALDOT’s written request for qualifications and proposal that was published in 2022 says the project would foster economic growth and create a direct interstate route for transporting hazardous material while lessening any adverse impacts to the maritime industries.
Gail Allyn Short is a Birmingham-based freelance contributor to Business Alabama.
This article appears in the December 2024 issue of Business Alabama.
