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Pigeon Creek Manufacturing, a burgeoning company in Greenville, is set to significantly impact the local economy with plans to expand its operations and hire hundreds of new employees over the next few years.

The company’s current expansion, which is already underway, is expected to bring 70 new jobs to Greenville and Butler County by January.

“Pigeon Creek Manufacturing is an existing business in Greenville. They’re expanding and they are in the process… between now and January, of hiring 70 new people,” Mayor Dexter McLendon said. “And that payroll will be a little over $3.4 million for Greenville and Butler County. And they’re making an investment of $4 million.”

Rob Ackerman, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, shared the reasoning behind their initial choice of a generic name, revealing plans for rebranding once their products prove successful in the market. 

“When we were pondering names of what our company was going to be called, we settled on Pigeon Creek Manufacturing,” Ackerman explained. “It’s very generic because right now we have to be very generic. The reason for that, is that during this training phase, that was our first batch… When you’re making ammunition, you only get one chance to prove yourself, and if we make junk, we won’t be in business very long. We will one day, very soon, become Yellow Hammer Ammunition Company.”

The company is not only committed to investing in Greenville but is also focused on hiring locally. 

“We’re willing to make the investment here in Greenville and hire the good people of Butler County and surrounding areas because we believe in what we’re doing and we believe in the people around here,” Ackerman said.

Pigeon Creek Manufacturing’s ambitious growth plans include increasing their workforce to 76 employees by early next year, with projections to reach 180 employees by May 2025. By January 2026, the company anticipates employing 305 people, and within two years, the workforce is expected to grow to 430. The expansion continues with plans to employ 550 workers by 2027 and 650 by 2028.

“We’re going to grow exponentially quickly, and we’re going to hire great people from this area,” Ackerman added. “Starting salary is $25 an hour, and that will grow very quickly, too.”

In addition to workforce expansion, Pigeon Creek Manufacturing has already made a positive impression on the local law enforcement community. The Greenville Police Department was given the opportunity to test the ammunition produced by the company. Police Chief Justin Lovvorn reported favorable results, noting that the ammunition performed well during testing, despite minor expected issues.

“They donated some rounds they had manufactured for us to test the integrity of them and see what the quality was and we used them as practice rounds,” Lovvorn said. “Then we had our instructors go out and just fire them off to do what they normally do, and we found a very low percentage rate of error.”