‘We looked very hard at cost of living’

Bill Nuti, chairman and chief executive officer of NCR, spoke with the AJC before Tuesday’s news conference at the state Capitol. His comments are condensed for brevity.

Q: How did you settle on Georgia, Duluth in particular?

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AJC

Bill Nuti, chairman and CEO of NCR. Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue answers questions in the background.

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A: We did a complete analysis of the lower 48 states measuring a state’s political environment, demographics, tax incentives, foreign direct investment, skilled labor, infrastructure, supply chain, airports and, of course, we looked very, very hard at the cost of living. Georgia scored among the highest-ranked states for the high availability of a skilled work force and [training]. Georgia has a thriving economy, the No. 8 lowest corporate tax rate, No. 16 in the United States for foreign direct investment, great logistics, particularly for supply chain and infrastructure. It’s home to many research centers and many Fortune 500 companies, including many of our customers in town.

Q: Y’all got more than $60 million in incentives from the state, and millions more from Gwinnett County and Columbus. How critical were tax breaks in making your decision?

A: Look, we’re not going to give away any particular numbers because they were not the only factors that go into the decision. While the incentives will definitely lower our cost of operations over the next 10 years by tens of millions of dollars, the reason we are here is not just about the cost.

Q: What else do we need to know?

A: The press is missing two key stories here. One — especially during times like these when announcements are being made with GM and other companies — is that an American company is announcing new manufacturing jobs. This is a huge story. The other part is, I don’t know of any leader of any company over the last year that’s said we’re going to build a manufacturing plant in America, returning to our roots of the Industrial Revolution, and do it on American soil.