The Tift County Development Authority has purchased the building and equipment formerly known as Tifton Aluminum from Alcoa for $2 million and in turn entered into a 10 year lease agreement with a contract to purchase with Ohio-based BRT Extrusions. BRT Extrusions will open an aluminum extrusion company named Tifton Extrusions, Inc., at the former Tifton Aluminum location. The company will manufacture aluminum extrusions that are sold to a variety of businesses such as door and window companies, pool companies, the lighting industry, etc.

Chamber board chairman Greg Sowell said the purchase price for BRT Extrusions will be the balance of the amortized project cost. Additionally, Sowell said, the Tift County Development Authority “will apply on their behalf for possible grant funding from the state.”

Sowell said it was his understanding Tifton Extrusions is now looking to fill approximately 80 positions, with five or six of the positions in clerical work and the remainder in manufacturing.

Tifton Extrusions will be taking applications for aluminum extrusion jobs at the plant site today from 9 a.m. through 4 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m. through 1 p.m. The positions available include salary and hourly jobs. Applications will also be accepted Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The company is located in the industrial park at 250 Southwell Boulevard.

The company expects to reach a staffing level of approximately 146 in its fourth year.

BRT Extrusions was founded and began operations in 2004 by President Roy E. Smith and Vice President William A. Fusco. “We were looking for something that would be good for us and this plant came up,” Smith said. “We’ve spent quite a bit of time here and it’s a nice area to do business.”

Smith said that Fusco will move to Tifton to manage Tifton Extrusions and anticipates being in the Tifton plant in four to six weeks.

Fusco said the Ohio business has been successful due to basic business practices and a commitment to quality and customer service that they will bring to Tifton as well. “We manufacture a quality product at a competitive price and we deliver on what we say,” said Fusco. “Now you might hear that a lot but we actually do it. We work with a lot of different type of industries and we’re very diverse. We’re excited about the possibilities in Tifton.”

“This is the result of our city, county, chamber and many people in the community working together to make this happen,” said Tifton Mayor Jamie Cater. “And good things happen when people work together.”

Cater said, “This will certainly be a big start to get back to the level where Tifton and Tift County deserve to be. We are all excited about this.”

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brad Day said, “This deal is a great example of how our economic development team seeks to help revitalize, replace and add jobs to this economy. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work and Jack Perry (interim chamber president) did an excellent job of guiding this project.”

Sowell said other companies who work in the same field as Tifton Extrusions have indicated interest in either relocating or expanding in Tifton. He said the chamber is discussing these opportunities and will continue to do so with any company who is considering bringing jobs here. “We’ve been very impressed with this company and we’re glad that we could partner with them to bring them to Tift County,” Sowell said. “These are good jobs and this company is solid and expanding. As always, a lot of folks worked together to help make this happen and we will benefit from having more jobs and another strong corporate partner in Tift County.”

County Commission Chairman Grady Thompson said, “The Development Authority worked hard to make this happen, along with the city, county, Georgia Department of Economic Development and the chamber. This will help us offset some previous losses and we hope it will be a catalyst for other companies to come here.”

Tifton Aluminum, the flagship industry of the industrial park for many years, closed in October last year and 200 employees lost their jobs. It was the third major industry to close, preceded by Shaw Industries' closing of one of their plants with a loss of 228 jobs and the closing of Avondale Mills with a loss of 89 jobs.