ACMT Heads South!

Good news! ACMT is expanding to the beautiful panhandle of Florida!

The new expansion heads to Lynn Haven, north of Panama City, Florida, to a facility that used to be home to the Honeywell company, which manufactured brake pads for GM and other vehicle companies. The Bay County Commission voted to approve the ACMT move in October, which should benefit both the town and the company is many ways. ACMT will receive benefits like tax breaks, provided they meet all the goals they’ve been assigned.

One of those goals is a local job creation project. The new Florida expansion promises to create 105 jobs for the area, and local voters actually had a say in the project, one of the stipulations being that ACMT has to create and maintain jobs to receive the incentives they’re being offered. That creates more motivation for both sides, and should result in a meaningful coalescing of local workers and ACMT itself. Which is great, because the wages offered by ACMT, and the jobs that are being filled (advanced manufacturing jobs) pay more than the local Bay County average by a fair margin.

And with jobs comes investment in the new community that ACMT will inhabit. The company expects that the new project will invest about $20 million into the local community. The new facility, which ACMT President Michael Polo had his eyes on since meeting Florida governor Rick Scott at an air show in 2014, which will make parts for commercial and military aviation, will also benefit from the wealth of military talent in the nearby area.

Some of the more personal touches that show just how much the region wanted ACMT to come be a part of the community include city employees of Lynn Haven mowing the lawn of the property ACMT was going to purchase, to show just how much land they were going to acquire. An official from the local Economic Development Association even helped the ACMT President pick out furniture for his new home in Bay County.

It seems fruitful partnerships will continue to blossom as ACMT acclimates itself to new environments.