Babynov CEO Pleas for County Pilot Extension
By Misty Green
Macon County Commissioners met on Monday, November 4, 2024, for the Committee of the Whole work session and were allowed to hear from Babynov CEO Erik DE COCK, who was seeking the reason why the PILOT extension request was denied and to communicate with commissioners about the painful need for the $50-60,000 tax-break extension request to be granted.
“Tonight, we have got Mr. Erik DE COCK, and he is with Babynov,” Macon County Mayor Steve Jones said, “And he has come to talk to you.”
Mr. DE COCK walked up to the front table and sat down to address the body.
“Good evening, everyone,” the CEO began to speak, “Mr. Jones talked with you about when we applied for the PILOT extension and that the committee had a (denied) advisement and he offered me the opportunity to come here and speak to all of you. For two reasons, seeing that it was painful for us to see it was refused and secondly, that there were so many things said later on that we were not equal in paying our people, and that is not the case at all because we pay our people correctly, everyone the same, for doing the same job and in addition, as I expressed to Mr. Jones, we have a lot of problem in recruiting people and is quite difficult to get the people in the factory and after we get them, let’s say, to keep them. We pay approximately, I think, $7 to $800,000 a year in training because of the turnover of people, so it is very difficult to get people in the factory. That is the background of the whole thing, so I would like to know from you why it is so difficult to get an (extension) of the PILOT. It is not un-normal to obtain this… for now… You understood from Mr. Jones, but the Committee was against it, so we would like to know why because it is important for us to be here in the city and the county, so Mr. Jones said we should come and talk to the people. Before I forget, I also want to invite you (Commissioners) to come and visit the plant, because I think it is one of the bigger plants and I would like to give you a better impression of what we are doing and what we are standing for.”
“Okay, thank you Erik,” Mayor Jones replied, “Erik had come to me after the meeting and wanted to come and talk to you and I think this may be something that the county attorney needs to talk to you about on that and all that we need to do tonight is, of course you can’t make any decisions on what you want to do, but Erik is available if you want to ask him any questions on what’s going on… I think there were some concerns about who they employ and what types of people are working and things, and he said they were working only legal people, but I know the state of Tennessee put $2 million into a project to try to help them and things, and then the PILOT programs help some with struggles… They came here at a bad time. They came here during COVID, and they couldn’t get the people over here, they struggled getting started and so forth, and now they are needing… and this is a typical thing you have given other companies extensions on the PILOT program, so that would be something, but I think right now, if you’ll just entertain a motion to send it on to the full body and let the county attorney talk with you about this and see where we are at on this and things… What’s the will of the body?”
“How many employees do ya’ll have over there right now,” one commissioner asked. The long answer Mr. DE COCK gave was inaudible for re-printing, but near the end of his explanation, it was heard that they employ around 180 people fixed and around twenty temporary.
“One of the stipulations that was put in the PILOT program is maybe they have to have so many employees by a certain time for that to work,” Mayor Steve Jones said.
“Do you know how many employees are citizens from Macon County,” another commissioner asked.
“That’s very difficult to tell to be quite honest, but most are from around here,” Mr. DE COCK replied, “Because, if they come locally, it is easier to keep them, and if you have to travel three-quarters of an hour, then you are looking for other things… So we try to focus more and more on local people, but it has been difficult… there was a time that we had 100% turnover in one year.”
District 2 Commissioner Keith Newberry then thanked the Babynov CEO for coming out and talking to them.
“Well, thank you very much,” Mr. DE COCK said in his French accent, “I am very glad that Mr. Jones gave me the opportunity to talk to you, and again, I invite you as a group to visit the plant.”
“This is the same PILOT that they had before,” someone asked.
“Yes,” Mayor Jones replied, “Just an extension of it… Around $50-60,000 per year, give or take a little and is the same thing you did for a couple of the other businesses… What I would like to do is talk with Erik and talk with the county attorney and let us put somethings back together to bring back to you and let you know what it is and put some stipulations with it if you wanted to go in that direction.”
The motion and second was heard, and was sent on to the full body.
