Lowndes County recognizes National Manufacturing Week
Published 2:22 pm Tuesday, October 21, 2025
VALDOSTA — Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta dedicated the week of Oct. 6-10 as National Manufacturing Week, alongside Oct. 3 as National Manufacturing Day. An ordinance was read on Oct. 3 at Hunt Industries, and the company provided tours for those who came to celebrate.
This proclamation occurred in the same week that President Donald Trump made a national declaration of National Manufacturing Week on Oct. 7. The proclamation is meant to recognize and educate Americans about their local manufacturing industries and their involvement in the community.
The tour was hosted by Hunt Industries, a local company that manufactures equipment for industries across the country.
“We [manufacture] structural steel, vessels, we work for the food and and industry plants, chemical plants, wood products, just a broad range of things,” Anthony Hughes, project manager for ASMB said.
The proclamation was read by Mayor Scott Matheson and Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter, who also discussed the importance of manufacturing in Valdosta, as well as the capabilities of the host of the tours, Hunt Industries.
“Any company that can recycle the bars from an old jail and the dimensions is alright in my book,” Matheson said. “I just took a tour of the facility and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Slaughter went into further detail about how integral these manufacturing industries are to keeping people in Lowndes County and keeping their livelihoods local.
“Our job is recruiting and trying to give you businesses and industries in your community so that we can continue to have jobs, and so our kids don’t have to leave Lowndes County,” Slaughter said. “They can make that decision to stay right here. It’s because of great companies such as Hunt Industries that they’re able to do that.”
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. manufacturing contributed around 10% of America’s GDP in 2023, totalling $2.3 trillion. Valdosta’s manufacturing industries create over $1 billion and employ nearly 5,000 people.
Much of south Georgia’s economy comes from agriculture, and Valdosta is no exception; much of the growth surrounding the city is centered around farmers.
“If you drive around South Georgia, you’ll see cotton farms everywhere,” Perry Branch, senior project manager for Hunt Industries said. “That cotton is selling for three cents more than it was 40 years ago.”
As a result, Valdosta’s agricultural manufacturing has become a hub of development for the area. Equipment suppliers and chemical manufacturing has grown into a large contributor to the county’s job market.
Project managers with Hunt Industries led tours around the facility, where they discussed their steel workings and the vessels being welded and prepared for shipping. Tour participants were required to wear close-toed shoes and were provided with safety goggles and hard hats for safety. They answered questions about their work and what was being built.
According to Hughes, local manufacturing companies such as Hunt are important to the city and county because it keeps money in the community.
“Manufacturing’s important to every community,” Hughes said. “It’s a valuable resource for growth in the community, it keeps everything local. It keeps the money in the community instead of it going outside to other manufacturers.”
This is not the first time manufacturing was recognized in the city of Valdosta and Lowndes County; Matheson and Slaughter recognized Oct. 11-15 as Manufacturing Week in 2021. This has led to an extended period of the city and county’s recognition of local manufacturing efforts such as Hunt Industries, Agri Supply and CJB Applied Technologies.