Long before becoming president and CEO of the Covington County Economic Development Commission (CCEDC), Rick Clifton dedicated much of his career to the legal profession. Introducing himself, tongue firmly in cheek, as a “recovering lawyer,” Clifton’s years as a senior attorney have proven advantageous for businesses and residents alike in this Alabama community. Here, proven workforce training opportunities, customized federal, state, and local incentives, a skilled workforce, an enterprise zone, industrial parks, and some of the lowest property taxes in Alabama combine to make Covington County an ideal place to build a business.
In working with the EDC for about a decade before coming on board as president and CEO in 2012, Clifton had polished his knowledge of business retention, workforce development, strategic planning, grants and incentives, policies, and other key tactics. “I was familiar with what they do, and traveled with them a lot,” he shares. The law firm he was with represented the CCEDC as well as the airport and several cities in the county, and when his predecessor left, the chairman of the EDC suggested Clifton apply. “I had a lot of economic development experience on the law side,” he says, “and I was ready for a change.”
Top state for business
Located in rural south Alabama, Covington County is near the Florida border and has a population of about 38,000. Andalusia serves as the county seat for Covington, which encompasses 1,034 square miles and has 10 incorporated towns.
For many years, one of the area’s major businesses was Alabama Textile Products Corporation (ALATEX). Founded over 100 years ago as the ANDALA Co., it served as a contract manufacturer for legendary clothing company Arrow Shirts.
Cementing its reputation early on as an ideal place to do business, Alabama was named one of the Top States for Doing Business by Area Development magazine last October. “Certain states just have the right ingredients for attracting and nurturing business growth,” enthused the publication. “The 2024 Top States for Doing Business rankings are in, and guess what? The Southern states are shining bright once again.”
Some reasons for this recognition include the state’s business-friendly policies, workforce development, competitive tax rates, and incentives, which together create an ideal climate for growth and investment. Being a right-to-work state also means that Alabama fosters a lower overall cost of doing business.
Unmatched training offerings
“The report credits two main reasons for Alabama’s success: a favorable property tax structure and strong investments in workforce development,” says the CCEDC website. “AIDT (Alabama Industrial Development Training), a division of the Alabama Department of Commerce, continues to provide new services and customized technical training programs at no cost to both employers and trainees.”
This training encompasses everything from trainee recruitment and screening to continuous improvement, safety assistance, process improvement assessments, and leadership training programs.
Training is conducted through AIDT staff or contracted instructors, and delivered via classrooms or one of 38 Mobile Training Units (MTUs). These MTUs can be customized for individual company needs, and even set up directly on employer sites.
“In terms of incentives and what we try to do, Alabama Industrial Development Training is our biggest incentive,” says Clifton. AIDT is consistently ranked as one of America’s top industrial training organizations, and Clifton and the CCEDC are impressed with how streamlined qualifying projects and Requests for Information (RFI) are.
“The AIDT will come in, develop a training program, recruit and train people,” he explains. This includes trainers being sent by auto manufacturers Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Hyundai from Germany, Japan, and South Korea respectively, with workers being screened and placed, all at no cost. “They will pay your people to train your people,” says Clifton. “That can really make a difference when you’re going after a project… the cost to you is zero.”
At present, Hyundai has a training facility in Alabama’s capital city, Montgomery, where its plant is located.
“Many businesses already know that Alabama—and especially Covington County—offers ample space, favorable taxes, and low utility costs,” adds Clifton on the CCEDC website. “However, fewer companies know just how much Alabama is investing in workforce development. Our goal is to make staffing one of the easiest parts of moving your operations to the state.”
Strong leadership
Rick Clifton works alongside CCEDC Vice President Jacob Morgan, various public and private partners, and a board comprising bankers, businesspeople, an airport director, and a community college president.
“We’ve got a very diverse board with a lot of business leaders, and our biggest employer, Shaw Industries, is on our board,” says Clifton. “It’s a very good group.” The executive committee includes the head of electricity producer PowerSouth Energy Cooperative along with the head of Covington Electric Cooperative, the local electricity distributor, and the president of Southeast Gas Co-op.
Indeed, many businesses remain faithful to Covington County, including Shaw Industries. “You wouldn’t think of aviation in rural South Alabama,” says Clifton of Shaw. A leader in flooring and surface solutions, Shaw is a wholly owned Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. subsidiary with over $6 billion in annual sales. The company recently completed a $300 million upgrade and renovation project for its local plant, furthering its commitment to Covington. “It’s the largest renovation in the company’s history, and we’re proud of that.”
Covington County continues to attract and retain many top manufacturers and businesses. According to the CCEDC, Alabama has been responsible for $18.82 billion in manufactured goods exports in 2019.
A rich business landscape
With an abundance of available land, Alabama and Covington County are home to many diverse sectors, including agribusiness and food production, automotive, aviation/aerospace, metal manufacturing, and many more. And with the second-largest timberland base in the United States at almost 23 million acres, Alabama is ideal for forestry-related products and manufacturing. Covington County itself is home to species including pine, elm, beech, oak, poplar, and hickory, as well as several historic mills.
Covington County is also home to the North American headquarters of McDermott Aviation, Australia’s largest Heli-Aviation company, with helicopters made by McDermott sent worldwide to fight fires. The area is also home to a massive, 70,000-square-foot twin hangar aviation complex. Supporting fixed and rotary aircraft OEM, repair, modification, and overhaul, the complex will become available this July.
Earlier this year, legendary sausage-making business Conecuh Sausage announced an $80 million processing facility in the area, which will create dozens of new jobs. The new facility is set to open in May. Other recent initiatives include a large landscaping, timber, rock, and mulch company announcing the creation of an $18 million facility in Florala, a town along the Alabama-Florida state line.
On the energy side, a solar farm will soon be constructed in the southern part of Covington County. The area is already home to several prominent engineering firms, along with PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, Southeast Gas, and Covington Electric Cooperative. Other businesses recently opening in the county include mulch, soil, and landscape rock company Sims Bark and agribusiness giant Simplot.
These companies join many others with a presence in Covington, including chemical and applications company Arclin, global packaging solutions experts Sonoco, Molded Fiber Glass Alabama, and Andalusia Distributing Co., to name a few.
“We fill a void,” says Clifton. “When the co-op system for rural electric services was built, Covington was the center. It made sense for utilities to make Covington their headquarters.” He jokes that the county is “90 miles from everything—90 miles from Montgomery, 90 miles from Dauphin, 90 miles to Mobile, and 90 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.”
Shovel-ready industrial parks
For Clifton and his team at the Covington County Economic Development Commission, nothing happens by chance. Everything is planned and thought out long in advance, including the area’s industrial parks. These include shovel-ready industrial parks, with expedited permitting, in both Andalusia and Opp.
“We have Advantage Sites that are pre-qualified and independently certified as shovel-ready. The Opp Industrial Park and Sutton Road Industrial Park are both Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) Certified Advantage Sites. Since the program was created in 2008, it has grown to 60 active Advantage Sites across Alabama.
What this means for new tenants is that all utilities are on site. All necessary studies—cultural, environmental, geophysical/soil, and even ensuring there are no endangered species—have been pre-completed, so businesses are comfortable knowing they can get up and running quickly.
“Alabama is business-friendly,” comments Clifton. One website he often directs people to is Made in Alabama, at www.madeinalabama.com. The comment he often hears is, ‘What’s made in Alabama?’ His response: ‘Everything.’ This encompasses aerospace, automotive, bioscience, chemicals, operations, logistics, metal and advanced materials, and much more, all backed by a business-friendly climate, great incentives, solid infrastructure, and a motivated workforce.
As a rural community, one challenge is getting companies to come to the area to experience for themselves all that Covington County has to offer. One time, Clifton worked on attracting a retail client for years. “When they finally came, they said, ‘We didn’t know you had all this.’ So if we can get them here, we can show them what we’ve got, and how you get from A to B,” he says.
Along with fostering a business-friendly environment, one of Covington’s biggest assets is its outstanding quality of life. It’s a genuine community where locals are friendly, helpful, and don’t lock their doors. “One phrase I use a lot is, ‘We do business with professional hospitality.’ You’ve heard of Southern hospitality, and we’ve taken a twist on that, and tell people we do it with professional hospitality,” says Clifton. “We have a lot of things going on, and when we get people to come and look, they like what they see.”
