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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Georgia: Home Base For Growth

Georgia is the perfect home base for growing your business.

LDW: Logistics, Distribution & Warehousing 2009
Georgia's transportation network is unparalleled. With its central location in the Southeast, companies can reach 80 percent of the U.S. market in a two-hour flight or two-day truck haul. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is consistently the world's busiest. It's also a key cargo station, shipping more than 738,000 tons of goods each year.

The state boasts an excellent highway network, with 15 interstates and an extensive complement of state and federal roads. Georgia has the strongest rail network of any Southeast state, with 4,700 miles of rail. Two of the country's largest Class 1 rail systems, CSX and Norfolk-Southern, provide the majority of rail service, while 24 short-line companies operate on close to 1,500 miles of track in the state.

Georgia's ports are also a standout. The Port of Savannah is the fastest-growing in the United States, with a more than 20 percent increase in container traffic in 2007, and the Port of Brunswick continues to attract more automotive business. Recently, Mercedes-Benz USA broke ground on a new Vehicle Preparation Center at the Georgia Ports Authority's Colonel's Island facility in Brunswick. Georgia's inland port terminals provide even more transportation options.

Warehouses and distribution centers are one of Georgia's strong suits. Close to 290 warehouse facilities with at least 100 employees or 100,000-square-foot facilities dot the state, and 14 of those facilities exceed one million square feet. More than 45 major retailers - spanning the spectrum between grocery stores, fast food restaurant chains, major department stores, auto part chains, and other specialty retailers - have located in Georgia, and the list keeps growing.

Georgia is also home to cutting-edge research in the logistics and supply chain fields. United Parcel Service, Home Depot, and Delta Air Lines are all headquartered in the state. Georgia Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering has been ranked number one in the United States by U.S. News & World Report for 19 out of the last 20 years. And Savannah is home to Georgia's Center of Innovation-Logistics, which fosters industry growth by sharing research knowledge with businesses and entrepreneurs.

Offering a well-trained work force is another way that Georgia stands out from the crowd. Its Quick Start employee training program has consistently earned top rankings from trade publications and industry watchers. Quick Start provides customized training at no cost to the employer - an incalculable benefit to thousands of relocating and expanding companies.

Georgia's higher education facilities - from its extensive technical college system to its prestigious research universities - mean that a well-educated work force is a given. In addition, the HOPE Scholarship program provides free tuition to the state's top scholars, putting a high-quality education within their reach.

Finally, Georgia has long fostered a business-friendly environment. Its lower tax rates combined with a below-average cost of doing business means you can do more with less in Georgia. A competitive array of business incentives, from corporate tax credits to the training available through Quick Start and the Intellectual Capital Partnership Program, put Georgia in a class of its own.

Georgia Department of Economic Development
75 Fifth St. N.W., Suite 1200
Atlanta, GA 30308
Phone: (404) 962-4122
www.georgia.org/logistics

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