Aaron Estes of Innotech says company will stay in Irwin County as it expands

Aaron Estes, technical manager for Innotech, said the Ocilla-based company plans to expand while keeping operations in Irwin County. “Ocilla is a great place to do business,” he said, and described the community as “a small close knit community where we all work together to make things happen.”

Estes explained that Innotech began as a training company that performs industrial training and assessments for employers and later moved into manufacturing the equipment used for that training. “Innotech, we started as a training company,” he said. “We still do training, but we also build the equipment that's used to do that training.”

He said the company sells both domestically and overseas, noting a private-label partnership: “we actually ship both in The United States, but also internationally,” and that the firm has equipment in “several countries in South America, Finland, Ireland, Australia, Philippines.” Estes also gave an approximate workforce size, saying the company has “anywhere from 15 to 20 employed at 1 time,” and that it is "looking at adding on here, so expanding that growth here."

Estes repeatedly framed the move as local retention: “So we're staying in Irwin County. We're staying in a local community,” he said, adding that the “Innotech brand is continuing to get bigger in many different states.” The transcript does not record any formal vote, incentive package, or local-government action tied to the remarks.

Estes summarized the company’s outlook by saying expansion is driven by demand rather than a specific planned relocation: “It's less of where we wanted to go and more where we're going to follow it.”