LAT Apparel cuts ribbon in Ball Ground

June 21, 2016

LAT Apparel, previously known as LAT Sportswear, celebrated the ribbon-cutting of the company’s new enormous multi-use building in Ball Ground on Thursday alongside hundreds of its employees, staff and associates.

Formerly known as LAT Sportswear, LAT has called Cherokee County and Ball Ground home for over 35 years. All branches of the company will now be able to work under one roof, allowing a capital investment of about $9.6 million.

President and CEO Gina Watson welcomed everyone to the brand new home of LAT Apparel on Leo Taylor Lane.

“Today we celebrate the opening of our state-of-the art warehouse of 166,400-square-feet corporate office and warehouse facility. This grand opening marks the culmination of an idea that began about three years ago,” Watson said. “With this new facility, we gain critically needed warehouse space which enables continued investment in inventory to serve our customers and to grow our business.”

Having all team members under the same roof opens up new global marketplace opportunities, according to Watson.

“Orders placed today by 4 o’clock ship today. This level of operational excellence is realized by the most outstanding and amazing group of associates,” she said. “With extreme hard work and dedication by the entire team, that’s how we are here today — $10 million pieces moved into this facility by these folks …unbelievable. Pieces of equipment were moved in one case at a time and we would not be here today without our great associates,” she said.

President of Cherokee Office of Economic Development Misti Martin was present at the ribbon-cutting and said she had been working with LAT Apparel on the plan since 2014.

“We’ve been working with them for several years on this expansion. Scott Hutchison was their real estate broker and we worked with him in 2014 to identify a site in the Cherokee Airport/Ball Ground region so that the company could expand while retaining their valued workforce,” she said. “It was a team effort by all involved as always. Cherokee County, Cherokee County Water & Sewage and (the) city of Ball Ground worked together from an infrastructure standpoint, too.”

Watson celebrated with all of her staff.

“We finally will be together in one facility like the big family that we are,” she said.

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