One of DeKalb's oldest plants to shut down

By Ty Tagami

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of DeKalb County’s oldest manufacturers has shut its doors and will move the last of its employees away this fall.

Fenner Dunlop, which makes conveyor belts, had already shuttered its manufacturing plant in DeKalb, but the company, which is based in Hessle in the United Kingdom, had maintained its U.S. corporate headquarters there.

That will change in November. A company expansion will draw the headquarters to Pennsylvania, so management can be closer to factories in Ohio and Canada.

“It’s easier to manage when management can be closer to where everything is happening,” explained Jill Schultz, the company’s marketing manager.

That will mean a loss of another 30 jobs for DeKalb and Avondale Estates. The company’s 10-acre property, with about 185,000 square feet of buildings, straddles the city line.

“They were going to keep their office here, but I guess they decided to consolidate it,” said Avondale Estates City Manager Clai Brown. The departure is “a good little punch to our revenues,” he said.

The plant is among the oldest in DeKalb. It began operating as the Georgia Duck & Cordage Mill in 1916. In 1998, a corporation bought it from the family that originally owned it, then sold it in 2001 to Fenner Dunlop, Schultz said.

Before the economic downturn, Avondale Estates was moving along with plans to rebuild its business core, and there was talk of converting the factory into condos and offices. Brown said the company’s managerial staff would have fit nicely into the plan.