All year long, work was underway at Shaw Industries’ Andalusia manufacturing facility, where new technology means local employees are “are as safe as humanly possible,” and the company has an operations edge in the manufacturing of carpet fiber.

That was plant co-manager Ron Fantroy’s description of a $250 million investment in the local plant, which was officially celebrated in December with Gov. Kay Ivey on hand.

Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson likes to describe it a bit differently.

“This is a quarter-BILLION dollar investment in our community,” the mayor is fond of saying.

But, he says, the investment would not have been made if the company didn’t have excellent employees working here.

“Thank you for your hard work, 24 hours a day,” he said.

The project includes construction of new and expanded building assets, and installation of substantial amounts of new manufacturing equipment. The changes will improve efficiency and production as well as ergonomics and safety for the more than 1,000 associates who work in the plant.