Fouts Brothers to expand in Milledgeville and Baldwin County

Published 5:00 pm Tuesday, September 26, 2023

When Fouts Bros. Inc. moved the company and headquarters to Milledgeville from Smyrna a few years ago, the goal of its president and chief executive officer was to see the company continue growing.

Scott Edens’ vision was the same as the one his grandfather, the late C.J. Fouts, had in mind when he founded the company in 1952 and began running day-to-day operations. 

Today, the visions of both men could not be clearer.

The company recently announced a local expansion that will bring new jobs and investment to the community.

The company is elite when it comes to manufacturing fire and fire rescue trucks.

When Edens first came to Milledgeville, the company was building 150 trucks annually. He said he wanted to double that number as soon as operations got underway. Since then, Edens and employees at Fouts Bros. Inc. have not lost sight of that lofty goal.

“We were searching for a building and site that could work for our operations,” Edens said in a DAMBC press release this week. “We understood that we needed to choose not just a building, but a community. The local leadership and economic development efforts, as well as the community members themselves, have helped make Milledgeville and Baldwin County a home for us.”

Sharon Seymour, chairwoman of The Development Authority of Milledgeville and Baldwin County, lauded the company’s expansion project.

“We are certainly glad that Fouts Bros. has chosen our community as home,” Seymour said. “We look forward to working with the company as they continue to grow and provide good incomes for hundreds of employees in our area.”

The company is rapidly becoming one of the fastest-growing employers in Milledgeville and Baldwin County.

“This company is growing by leaps and bounds, and I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Jonathan Jackson, executive director of The Development Authority of Milledgeville and Baldwin County.   

During a DAMBC board meeting Monday morning, Jackson shared details of the company’s expansion. 

“We have been given some definite numbers on that expansion for this year and for next,” Jackson said. “They are expanding to the tune of $4 million in investment. And they are adding 96 jobs in 2023 with a forecast to add 70 more in 2024.”

Those employment figures will take the company up to nearly 500 employees, which will make the company one of the county’s top employers.

Jackson said the company was using only about half of the space of the facility, the former home of Rheem.

“They have plans now to build on the back 30 acres because of the expansion of the business,” Jackson said. 

During a tour of the facility with county commissioners recently, Jackson said there were some pretty impressive fire trucks and rescue vehicles being built.

“This company are wonderful corporate citizens and we’re so happy to have them,” Jackson said. “We’re really proud to have them here. And the people who work there are doing quite well.”

Employees are making good wages, he said. Jackson said what Edens had done from a business perspective is quite a feat.

“One of the untold stories of Fouts Bros. is the environmental story,” Jackson said. “I believe that our community has had the assumption that the Rheem property was terribly polluted. That’s just not the case.”

Jackson pointed out that it was a Brownfield site.

“There was some well monitoring that was going on and some sub-surface ventilation going on, and because of Rheem and Fouts Bros. working together, they no longer are required to monitor ground water or perform the underground ventilation for the plant. However, Fouts Bros. is continuing to do the environmental work that needs to be done there. The site was removed off the Georgia Hazardous Sites list, which doesn’t really happen all that often. This is a textbook example of how Georgia’s Brownfield program works through EPD. So, it’s a huge accomplishment.”

Jackson said he and members of the DAMBC board are happy about the expansion.

“They said hiring has been a challenge,” Jackson said. “But they said our community was more suited to handle it than their previous location.”