NCR Corp. is nearly done with a whirlwind, four-month remodeling of a former battery factory in Columbus, Georgia, turning it into a state-of-the-art ATM manufacturing facility that may eventually employ 870 people.
The Panasonic factory, about two decades old, had been shuttered for two years. NCR knocked out walls, installed brighter lighting and dug 30 inches through the floor into the red Georgia clay to put a floor-level power conveyor in place for the first assembly line.
At the same time, hiring of administrative and production employees quickly began. To date, the company has about 125 people on its payroll in Columbus. Plans are to reach 150 by the time it rolls the first automated teller machine bound for a paying customer off of its production line in less than three weeks.
The Columbus facility was part of the agreement NCR made in June when it accepted $60 million in incentives to move its headquarters from Dayton, Ohio, to Duluth, Georgia.
The first ATM is expected to roll off the new plant’s assembly line in about four weeks.
