By Wayne Vardaman,

Executive Director of the Selma-Dallas County Economic Development Authority

 

Hanil E Hwa Interior Systems Alabama was recently awarded the Hyundai-Kia Quality 5 Star Award.

This award was the culmination of a lot of hard work and was a real honor for them to receive. The company hosted a celebration marking the occasion on Tuesday at their plant in the Craig Field Industrial Park.

Mr. Jung-Moon Park, president of Hanil E-Hwa Company, Ltd., and Mr. K.Y. Lee, director of Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama attended the celebration. Also attending were Judge Kim Ballard, Mayor George Evans and other community leaders.

I was asked to say a few words and was honored to do so. As I stood up, I reflected on the EDA’s initial contact with company officials and the subsequent announcement in August 2005.

At that time, the company purchased a 99,000 square-foot building that was once the distribution and corporate headquarters of American Candy Company. This, of course, was personal for me since I served as Sr. vice president with American Candy and was employed there for more than 20 years.

In their first year of operation, Hanil E Hwa provided approximately 100 jobs for our community. Since then, they expanded the initial building by 100,000 square-foot, bought a 50,000 square-foot speculative building and recently leased another 100,000 square-foot building. That is a total of nearly 350,000 square-foot. Including contract workers, the company currently employs close to 350 people. In seven years they have tripled their size in buildings and employees.

In 2005, I had no idea we would experience that kind of growth in our community. It just goes to show we have no idea what the future holds.

The work to get the company to locate here was intense and extremely competitive. A lot of people contributed to the success. I, for one, am very proud to have served as head of the negotiation team.

Hanil E Hwa has become a good corporate citizen and contributes to numerous local programs, the EDA being one of them.

Join me in congratulating Hanil E Hwa for receipt of this award and also for what they mean to our community.