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Athens Banner-Herald
May 3, 2003
All Jobs at ABB Plant Look Safe
New owners also planning pay hikes

If the sale of the Athens ABB manufacturing facility to a local corporation is completed as expected on May 15, the new owners plan to keep all jobs at the plant and to add a pay increase for the workers.

''There will be no layoffs,'' said Steve Hollis, who will serve as chief executive officer of Power Partners Inc., the Athens company which has agreed to buy the Athens plant from Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB. ''All active employees will receive an employment offer from us. There are no pay cuts, and in fact we will be putting in a pay increase immediately for all employees.''

The ABB plant in Athens generated $100 million in revenues last year. Power Partners is in the process of raising the capital to make the purchase of all the Athens ABB assets — machinery, equipment, the business itself, customer contracts and supply contracts.

Once the sale is completed, the new company will maintain a relationship with ABB, which still needs the distribution power transformers as part of its product portfolio, Hollis said. ABB will serve as Power Partners' sales channel, taking the products to marketplace. "We will brand or label it ABB, and we're commissioning them to sell for us,'' Hollis said.

The sale of ABB will likely mean considerable change in how the plant operates, according to Jerry Keenum, lead design engineer with ABB, but he believes most workers welcome those prospects. "I certainly think it's a positive thing for the Athens plant,'' said Keenum. ''Control now will be local rather than having to go to corporate or to another division for assistance. We'll do it all locally here. I think, generally, the mood is pretty good.''

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