Gwinnett County

Gov. Deal announces shipping company to create hundreds of jobs in Gwinnett

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — The economy may be showing signs of slowing down, but Georgia continues to attract new jobs.

A major transportation company announced Monday that it will add more than 350 jobs in Gwinnett County.

Channel 2's Richard Elliot was on hand as Gov. Nathan Deal made the announcement from his office Tuesday.

Hapag-Lloyd, an international transportation company, will expand in Georgia and invest some $5.5 million into Gwinnett County.

The company said Georgia’s commitment to logistics, including its expansion of an inland port in neighboring Hall County, was critical in its decision to expand here.

“So, the southern hospitality, I think it a little bit of the magic juice that ... helps our company grow and prosper,” said Uffe Ostergaard with Hapag-Lloyd.

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Gwinnett County Commission Chair Charlotte Nash said when a company decides to expand its operation, the county must be doing something right.

"We think it's the greatest complement when an existing business decides to expand in the community.
You know what you're getting, and we think that's a great compliment," Nash told Elliot.

It’s been a little more than a month since online retail giant Amazon announced it would not be locating its HQ2 and 5,000 new jobs to the metro Atlanta area.

But the governor said since that announcement, the state went out and attracted just as many new jobs anyway.

“Since that time, we have had over 5,000 new jobs come our way without Amazon being in that mix,” Deal said.

Hapag-Lloyd merged with United Arab Shipping Company in 2017 and is consolidating operations at its offices on Spalding Drive in Peachtree Corners, officials said.

Hapag-Lloyd is the fifth-largest shipping company in the world.

Information from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution used in this article.