New manufacturing company brings jobs to Amory

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI)- A new business and new jobs are coming to Amory.

Local start-up, Avid Boats will be building aluminum bay and bass boats.

And the homegrown company is being built on homegrown talent.

“We are hoping to bring in 75 jobs within the next couple years. Right now we have 17 employees, and we are on track for roughly 40 employees by Christmas of this year,” said Phillip Faulkner.

Phillip Faulkner says while they looked at a few different locations, in the end, there was no place like home.

“Amory is home to us. We looked around to other areas, we checked around the corner, and to see what kind of was our best fit. Ultimately we had an opportunity here to invest in this facility, and it was a no brainer,” said Faulkner.

Chelsea Baulch says things have been full speed ahead since the project was first brought to her.

“It’s been a very fast project so. They reached out back in December of last year, and they were starting this process so very, very aggressive. They have this first boat are planning to make other boats to get them to market and trade shows to get them sold,” said Baulch.

The Mississippi Development Authority and Itawamba Community College are teaming up to handle workforce training.

Faulkner thinks that will have a positive impact on business and the area.

“Absolutely it’s going to help us. Particularly from a metal fabrication side of the business. That’s such an important part of this process here and having that workforce training development certainly helps us from a confidence level knowing that one we are bringing in the people that we need to do the job here and do a good job here for us but also giving the employees the tools they need to be able to get the job,” said Faulkner.

Faulkner says this is only the beginning. He is already working on plans for growth.

“From here we are going to expand into other models. I said earlier 18 to 23 feet in length we are going to add a few more bay boat models we’re going to expand into the bass boat territory we are hoping for six models within the first 12 months of business so we are working hard to expand on this and just continue to build boats and create jobs,” said Faulkner.

Faulkner tells us the company is about 70% operational and hope to be fully up and running within about three months.