A training day at Enviva, one of Sumter County’s newest businesses. Photo courtesy of Sumter County Chamber of Commerce.
Greene County
HEALTHCARE
Greene County Health System is one of the largest employers in the county with about 200 workers. The company operates a hospital as well as a nursing home and rural health clinic.
WOOD PRODUCTS & PAPER
Drawing on the region’s rich heritage of timberlands, wood products remain an important industry in Greene County. The county’s largest manufacturing employer is Smurfit Westrock Co., which makes paper boards and has about 250 employees. Another local employer, Eutaw Hardwood Dimension, manufactures wooden dowels.
MANUFACTURING
The manufacturing sector has the greatest number of employees in Greene County, spanning products in several different industries. For example, the county’s manufacturing workers are employed in catfish processing, roofing products fabrication, machine shops and hardware.
OUTDOOR TOURISM
Dotted with hunting clubs and lakes, Alabama’s Black Belt is a beloved destination for fishing, hunting and outdoor tourism. Greene County offers several ecotourism destinations, such as Leavellwood, a 490-acre, family-owned hunting and fishing destination that also serves as a wedding and event venue.
Hale County
WOOD PRODUCTS
The county’s largest manufacturing company is Westervelt Lumber Co., which employs approximately 300 workers in Moundville and nearby Thomasville.
AGRICULTURE
Hale County ranks first in the state for volume of catfish production. The county is also a major producer of cattle and soybeans.
HEALTHCARE
With almost 200 employees, Hale County Hospital is a leading employer in the county. The hospital is currently constructing a new emergency department wing, which will allow it to meet more needs in the community and potentially add more jobs. In addition to the main hospital, the organization also operates medical clinics in Greensboro and Moundville.
Marengo County
WOOD AND PAPER PRODUCTS
A number of the county’s largest manufacturing employers are involved in the wood and paper products sector, drawing on the rich timberlands in the area. Among the companies in this sector are Smurfit Westrock, Linden Lumber, Two Rivers Lumber, Drax Group, Demopolis Hickory Mill and TP Logging.
HEALTHCARE
Whitfield Regional Hospital in Demopolis, operated by the UAB Health System, is one of the largest employers in the county with more than 400 employees. It also is positioned to become an important training ground for the state’s future healthcare leaders as an instructional laboratory for the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, scheduled to welcome its first students in Fall 2026.
AGRICULTURE
The largest agricultural commodities in Marengo County are cattle, catfish and cotton. Foster Farms, a producer of chicken and other food products, is one of the largest manufacturing employers in the county. Other large employers in this sector include SouthFresh Feeds.
TOURISM
Bass fishing, along with world-class deer, turkey and duck hunting are available at Soggy Bottom Lodge in Linden. Visitors also come to Marengo County for birding trails, camping and other activities at Chickasaw State Park, Foscue Creek Park and the riverwalk on the Tombigbee River.
Demopolis is home to a number of historic homes and museums.
Sumter County
EDUCATION
The largest non-manufacturing employer in Sumter County is the University of West Alabama (UWA) in Livingston. It is the only four-year university in the state that offers both academic and career technical training programs.
UWA also is the site of University Charter School, a pre-K through 12th grade school and the first charter school in Alabama to be operated by a university.
FORESTRY & WOOD PRODUCTS
Like other counties in the Black Belt, Sumter County is home to companies throughout the supply chain of wood products. For example, Prystup Packaging Products manufactures, cuts and prints folding cartons. Southwest Paper distributes paper, packaging and janitorial supplies. Enviva manufactures wood pellets for export, and Smurfit Westrock makes corrugated boxes. There also are several logging companies.
As a whole, the industry employs more than 1,000 workers in Sumter County.
TRANSPORTATION & TRUCKING
McElroy Truck Lines, which operates flatbed trucking and shipping, is the largest transportation employer in the county. Located in Cuba, it has 750 employees.
HEALTHCARE
Hill Hospital of Sumter County is one of the area’s largest employers. Other healthcare employers in the area include Sumter Health and Rehabilitation and UWA, which offers a nursing school, school of health sciences and health performance and a certified nursing assistant program.
Business Briefs:
FEBRUARY 2026: Mimosa Ridge, a Livingston-area wedding and event venue on the Tombigbee River, completed a major expansion, including addition of a ballroom.
JANUARY 2026: Superior Inland Terminals, in Demopolis, announced a $2 million expansion to increase its intermodal logistics capabilities on the Tombigbee River.
NOVEMBER 2025: RedLine Lure Co. opened in Moundville in Hale County, offering a storefront as well as an e-commerce site for fishing lures. The company specializes in handmade fishing tackle, including the FadeBlade Spinnerbait.
OCTOBER 2025: Southwest Paper completed a $2 million expansion, adding a new production line. The company also received a $175,000 grant from the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, which helped refurbish a rail line linking the Southwest Paper facility to the main rail line.
JULY 2025: The West Alabama Highway headquarters office opened in Demopolis with about 120 daily workers.
SEPTEMBER 2025: Enviva began production at its wood pellet facility in the Port of Epes Industrial Park in Sumter County. The total capital investment reached $560 million. Enviva is now projected to process approximately 2.5 million tons of wood annually, producing more than 1 million tons of pellets.
DECEMBER 2025: Prystup Packaging Products, in Sumter County’s Livingston, completed a $4.4 million expansion project. The project increases production space, adding equipment and 42 new jobs.
This article appears in the June 2026 issue of Business Alabama.
