Job fair Feb. 10 in Winder

The company plans to employ 80-100 people, according to the notice sent via e-mail by Linda Moore of the Barrow County Economic Development Commission to area officials. Mayor Chip Thompson distributed the announcement to the press at Monday's meeting of the Winder City Council.

The "reconditioning center" will be at 63 Pierce Road off Bankhead Highway between Winder and Carl. It will consist of two production facilities with a paint and body shop, a full detail department and more than 90 lifts. It will produce more than 800 reconditioned vehicles per month.

DriveTime and DT Acceptance Corp. are based in Phoenix and serve customers with less than perfect credit. Monday's announcement states that it is the largest used car sales and finance company in the United States.

"We are currently in a rapid growth mode with plans for 15 new dealerships in 2011 and continued expansion in the foreseeable future," said Jon Ehlinger, a company spokesman, in the announcement. "We are very excited about our new reconditioning center in Winder; it's a critical piece of our expansion plans."

The company plans to hire 25 technicians, two team leads, two lot attendants and one coordinator, and then add another 10-15 employees at the Winder location over the next several months. Employees at the company's inspection center on Memorial Drive in Atlanta will relocate to the Winder facility.

The job fair is from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the community center in downtown Winder at 113 E. Athens St. Assisting with the event is the EDC and the Athens Career Center of the Georgia Department of Labor.