Kemp confirms $4B Audi auto investment

We got breaking news from the state capitol this afternoon. Governor Brian Kemp making a major announcement. And he is, take a live picture of the state capitol here. And the governor's announcement that is coming up. I believe we have a podium shot set up too. Kemp is going to come out any second now and speak on this $4 billion investment here in Georgia to build the very first U.S. manufacturing facility for automaker Audi. All right, German automaker Audi is going to plant roots here in our state to open this major manufacturing production facility, meaning a huge contribution to the state of Georgia's economy. State Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson is also going to be there and on hand. The governor is going to come out, speak, take some questions. this announcement was made during president trump's stop in perry last night where he announced that audi is bringing its business to georgia uh the german automakers plans on breaking ground here on a factory we understand that this factory is going to be near macon georgia so audi joining several other huge manufacturers here in our state uh in making this announcement and there is the president of audi usa standing next to the governor i believe this was at the governor's mansion earlier uh yeah in front of the governor's mansion clad with brand new audi vehicles um i'm an audi owner i've had one for about four years they're great cars to drive not that that's an endorsement for audi but um i love mine and it's nice to know that that uh they'll be being built here in our state the governor just stepped out let's listen in Commissioner Pat Wilson as you guys know we had a great announcement over the weekend with Audi, the state and our great local partners in Macon, Bibb, Peach, and Houston counties. We have been working on this project for over two years and very excited about the president and the company's announcement Saturday. We had a great breakfast and visit with them, signed a little bit of paperwork early Saturday morning. I first met with the company when I attended the Munich Security Conference almost two years ago, getting close to two years ago, and also you all know about our recent trip to Belgium and our UCB announcement. So the trips that the department and I have been able to take, we've had a lot of fruition come from that. And we just appreciate the team and our teams and what they have been doing. As you guys remember, this was part of our plan to strengthen rural Georgia when I first ran for governor, which seems like an eternity ago now. But one of the things when we first got in office, when I talked to Pat about you know what all we could do to bring jobs and good opportunity to people no matter their zip code and we came up with the plan to create the three mega sites and with this announcement we have now fulfilled those I was a little worried I wasn't going to get that done before I got out of office but we were glad to do that we've got Hyundai on the Savannah site with the four County Joint Development Authority there we got Rivian coming off the ground now with the four county joint development site there and then now this three county joint development site in middle Georgia and Peach County with our partners down there and with Audi and really the reason Pat and I wanted to come out today is to just thank the locals for how hard they have worked it took a tremendous amount of coordination and cajoling to get them to come together to really do this as a regional project Pat and his team work with the great leaders down there to do that and so we want to make sure that we're thanking them this truly was the Georgia way working with state local and our federal partners to get this done also this will be a transformational project for middle Georgia I mean it's a huge investment huge amount of jobs we've had a lot of a lot of great companies look at that site but I think the size of this project the amount of jobs that are coming is really the right fit for that region, so we're very excited about that. We're also excited about the future. We talked a lot with the company about them being in the middle of a lot of their supplier network, but also the existing supplier network that we've gotten just off the Hyundai plant alone. We got 20 other suppliers with that project, so we feel like there's a lot of synergy with Audi to be working with other suppliers that are in Georgia. Certainly that is one of of the reasons they chose this site is because of the logistics. So we're very excited about that. Also it really focuses again on our plan to strengthen rural Georgia. If you look at our record-breaking years, which this one was another one, we had a record year for investment in the state. 75% of the investment went outside, you know, the 10 or 12 metro Atlanta region. So we continue to be focused on giving people economic opportunity no matter the zip code. And lastly, I would end with this and we'll open it up for questions. Pat always says this isn't about us, this is about the jobs that the hard-working people of our state are going to get. These are going to be great paying jobs that pay above the county wage. They're going to have great benefits and it's going to be great for that region of the state, but also for our entire state. So we're very excited about that. With that, we'll take some questions. Governor, any project like this, as you mentioned, doesn't take weeks, months, they take years. Talk about how this first came about and how you sealed the deal, I guess, a few weeks ago. Well, I'll let Pat weigh in because he probably remembers more about this kind of stuff than I do. But best I can remember, I read an article and Audi said that they were looking at coming to the U.S. And so when I got invited to go to the Munich Security Conference and we put an economic development kind of trip around that, I asked Pat and the team to reach out to them and see if we could get a meeting where we could pitch the mega site, you know, just in case this was for real or if they got to looking down the road. It was really a cold call, quite honestly. But we put a little pitch book together. The team did. We had a very, very quiet, secretive meeting. It was just in a small room at the hotel. And, you know, we laid this on them and said, hey, you know, we don't know what your plans are. And they didn't really say a whole lot to us, best I remember. But we had a plan that showed them the site, the work that we put into the site and pitched it then. And, you know, we had a lot of really good companies looking at this site. We've been very close on this multiple times. But they came back to us. The project then went cold for a long time. I think we opened it back up and started, you know, marketing the site again. But then they came back and we got the deal done. So it's been a long time coming, but it was very exciting. Pat, was there anything else? Yeah, the governor's right. This project was about a two-year process. All right, that's State Economic Development Commissioner Pat Wilson And we met with answering questions from reporters about how this deal went down. The governor announcing that at a global security conference in Munich, he was able to quietly negotiate the terms of what would be this announcement on the part of Audi to open a manufacturing plant here in our state. We understand this is going to happen kind of in middle Georgia near Macon. The governor talked about the Hyundai plant, which is off near Savannah. When you think about it, it's a great move, if I may digress, on the part of Audi because you're in the hub of the southeastern United States. What do we have here besides our great location? A shipping port not too far away in Savannah, which allows more effective and efficient movement of automobiles like Audi, not only to other parts of the world, but down to Latin America, Central America as well. And so this is a huge economic infusion. And there was an interesting comment there by the governor about the play-by-play of how the deal was negotiated with Audi. It was done on the sidelines of this security conference, the governor saying, in a quiet room with just a few players involved. So really interesting inside look, if that's your thing, and you enjoy hearing the inside baseball part of it, as I do, as to how this huge deal was landed. And the governor, who is exiting office in just a couple of months, will exit office on the heels of this major economic announcement for our state. So Governor Brian Kemp there and State Economic development commissioner, Pat Wilson, making the big announcement today.