Business Editor

 June 7, 2013 

Businesses depend on educated workers to succeed. So it was no surprise that among the several hundred people at Thursday's Education Summit were business people.

 

The company, which is based in Northridge, Calif., will unveil the 330,000 square foot facility on North Park Drive in Opelika to help meet the growing global demand it has seen in its Nature Made health and wellness products.

According to a release from the company, the facility will be the biggest of its kind built in a decade, and the first in the Southeast.

 

In addition to Nature Made, Pharmavite also manufactures products under the brand names Soyjoy, Voots and Veggie Fruit Tart.

 

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[Birmingham Business Journal]  

The high volume of traffic into Anniston and Oxford each morning is the last thing motorists want to see, unless perhaps they are area economic developers.

Calhoun County pulls in nearly 5,000 workers from the surrounding area every day while the majority of its own workforce stays put, U.S. Census data shows, indicating economic strength and the potential to attract new industries. Economic experts say that with a strong health care industry, public institutions such as Jacksonville State University, multiple manufacturers and a healthy highway infrastructure, the county is on strong economic footing with the potential to lure in more industry.

According to 2010 Census data, the county's 117,149 population grows by 4.3 percent every workday due to commuting, ranking it fifth among the Alabama counties with the highest daily commuter growth. Meanwhile, of the county's total working population, 83.2 percent stay in the area to work, ranking it among the 10 Alabama counties with highest local workforce retention, the data show. The data have remained consistent, despite a decline in the local manufacturing sector in the past decade and more recent job losses in the defense industry due to the end of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

June 2013

Alabama's leading agricultural export products are poultry and forest products, says Jimmy Lyons, CEO of the Alabama State Port Authority. The Port of Mobile is the largest break bulk forest products port in the United States. According to the Alabama Forestry Association, the state exports 1.2 million tons of forest products each year. Exact numbers are unavailable, because forest products that are transported in containers, such as wood pulp, are not tracked by the ton but by the box, Lyons says.

 

Forest products are shipped from Alabama to destinations worldwide, "with the bulk moving to Northern Europe, Asia, Caribbean and Mediterranean," says Judith Adams, vice president of marketing for the Port Authority.

Poultry is a close second to forest products as the largest agricultural export product from Alabama.

 

 Approximately $387 million worth of poultry is exported from Alabama each year, says Ray Hilburn, membership director at the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association. The exact tonnage is difficult to track, because most Alabama poultry producers do not sell directly to international customers, Hilburn says. Instead, they sell to brokers in Ohio, Miami or other locations, who purchase poultry from many producers in various states and sell it to international customers.