Saft moving North American headquarters to Jacksonville

[John P]

http://jacksonville.com/business/2011-03-22/story/battery-maker-saft-moving-north-american-headquarters-jacksonville

"Saft will move its North American headquarters to Jacksonville where the company is building a $200 million high-tech battery plant that will start production in July.

The plant is expected to employ about 300 people when it is operating at full capacity. The headquarters will have a smaller job impact of seven to 10 employees, but it would bring some of Saft's corporate decision-makers to Jacksonville. Saft, which has six other locations in the U.S., has its corporate headquarters in Valdosta, Ga.


This part was interesting.

"He said Saft decided to make Jacksonville the North American headquarters for the same reasons that it chose the city for the plant.

The city has some "international style" that will help when Saft brings customers from around the world to the battery plant, Alcide said. He said Saft also views Jacksonville's lifestyle and amenities as assets for attracting talented engineers and others with advanced training for the work Saft does.

"It's very important to be able to recruit highly technical people to places where they want to live," he said."

[copperfiend]

International style?

[JeffreyS]

I guess that is compared to Valdosta.

[Lunican]

Case in point that the quality of life issue is important.

[Shwaz]

Case in point that the quality of life issue is important.

As far down on the rung as Jacksonville is... there are many other places that are further behind.

[Lunican]

Obviously, but it's a little embarrassing competing with Palatka and Valdosta.

[Shwaz]

Obviously, but it's a little embarrassing competing with Palatka and Valdosta.

I guess so when were talking about competition between the 3 regarding 'international style'.

But really it's not really a big surprise... Jax may not be the big city we all pretend it is from time to time.

[Ocklawaha]

International style?

Yeah, we have bilingual signs now down at social services...  Take that Valdosta!  So is this is the "REALLY BIG" earth shattering move Scott and Peyton worked out? WOW.

OCKLAWAHA

[fsujax]

I was thinking the same thing Ock. I really hope not!

[Wacca Pilatka]

No, it is definitely not.  It is a coda to the battery factory announcement.

[copperfiend]

Obviously, but it's a little embarrassing competing with Palatka and Valdosta.

But we have a Bahama Breeze and Pottery Barn. Sooooo....

[Wacca Pilatka]

Obviously, but it's a little embarrassing competing with Palatka and Valdosta.

Strongly agreed that the quality of life issue is important, but I think it's a bit misleading and overly self-deprecating to say those cities were the competition in this case.  Didn't Saft have operations in other much larger cities such as Baltimore that were under consideration for the HQ?

[Jason]

There is most likely a "hometown" connection between Jax and one or more of the owners.

Nonetheless, this is another little tidbit of good news.  I've been wondering if the plant was moving forward.

[mtraininjax]

Nonetheless, this is another little tidbit of good news.

Moving 7 people from Valdosta to Jacksonville is a little tidbit of news? Wow, our metro area population just increased .000064%. Now that is a tidbit.

[riverside_mail]

International style?

code word for third world.