OPELIKA — When Mayor Gary Fuller stood up at a City Council meeting in April 2005 to announce that a Korean plastics company was putting a $14 million plant on 20 acres in the Northeast Opelika Industrial Park, nobody called it a defense announcement. It was bumper parts for the new Hyundai plant down in Montgomery — about 100 jobs, an 80,000-square-foot building, the kind of supplier win that follows a big automotive assembly plant into a region.
Twenty-one years later, the same company’s name is on a U.S. Army contract worth up to $262 million, and the howitzers built under it will be integrated and tested in Opelika.
The line between those two announcements is not a coincidence, and it is not a single lucky break. It is two decades of a company deciding, over and over, to grow in the same city. Opelika Daily News has covered every one of those decisions as it happened. Here is the whole record in one place.
2005: Maxforma Plastics, and a name almost nobody recognized
The company that broke ground was Maxforma Plastics LLC, an automotive supplier owned by Hanwha L&C Corporation of Seoul — a Hanwha Group affiliate then best known for construction materials, artificial marble and auto components. The Opelika plant’s job was the impact-resistant core inside Hyundai’s bumpers. The investment was $14 million; employment was expected to exceed 100.
Read the 2005 report: Maxforma (Hanwha) Comes to Town (With Jobs)
2008 and 2009: Two expansions, and $43 million in the ground
The plant expanded in 2008, and again in December 2009 — this time under the name Hanwha L&C Alabama, LLC. That second expansion added $11 million, 25 jobs and about 25,000 square feet, bringing the building to roughly 145,000 square feet and the company’s total Opelika investment to about $43 million in four years. By then it was a tier-one supplier to both Hyundai in Alabama and Kia in Georgia.
Fuller’s remarks that day were about more than payroll. Hanwha was one of the first industries to contribute to the Opelika Sportsplex and Aquatics Center; the group fitness room there is named in the company’s honor.
“We sincerely appreciate Hanwha’s investment in our community,” Fuller said, “and pledge to continue to support their growth and success here in Opelika.”
Read the 2009 report: Hanwha Expansion Brings 25 New Jobs to Opelika
The years in between: a quiet anchor on Northpark Drive
The Opelika operation is today known as Hanwha Advanced Materials America, LLC, still doing business as Hanwha L&C Alabama at 4400 Northpark Drive, and still a Hanwha company. (Hanwha L&C’s separate construction-materials business was sold to Morgan Stanley Private Equity in 2014 and eventually became part of Hyundai Department Store Group; the automotive and advanced-materials side — Opelika’s side — stayed with Hanwha.) It employs roughly 100 people and is one of the larger Korean-owned manufacturers in a city that now has several.
April 2026: Opelika’s first national defense project
Hanwha Defense USA announced it would invest more than $2 million in its Opelika facility and add about 40 jobs — the city’s first national defense initiative. The work: manufacturing and testing of K9 Mobile Howitzers, self-propelled artillery systems, with Opelika serving as the final stop before delivery. The company signed a three-year lease.
The reasons given for choosing Opelika were geography and brainpower: proximity to Fort Benning and to Auburn University, which had itself landed a $49 million Pentagon research contract.
Read the April report: Hanwha Defense USA Investing $2 Million in Opelika Facility, Creating 40 New Jobs
August 2026: The Army contract
On Aug. 18, the U.S. Army selected Hanwha Defense USA to deliver prototype K9 Mobile Howitzers for its new Mobile Tactical Cannon program — six prototypes with an option for 12 more, a contract worth up to $262 million. It is Hanwha Defense USA’s first major U.S. Army contract. The systems will be integrated and tested in Opelika, with the first prototype targeted for this fall and early production capacity coming from South Korea while the Opelika operation ramps up.
“We are proud that these prototype systems will be assembled in Opelika, creating good jobs and strengthening Alabama’s role in supporting America’s national security,” Alabama Secretary of Commerce Ellen McNair said.
Read the August reports: Hanwha Wins Army Howitzer Contract Worth Up to $262 Million · Alabama Lawmakers Tout Defense Role After Hanwha’s Opelika Howitzer Award
The timeline at a glance
- April 2005 — Maxforma Plastics (Hanwha L&C) announces a $14 million, 100-job bumper-components plant on 20 acres in the Northeast Opelika Industrial Park.
- 2008 — First expansion of the Opelika plant.
- December 2009 — Second expansion: $11 million, 25 jobs, 25,000 additional square feet; total Opelika investment reaches about $43 million.
- 2014 — Hanwha L&C’s construction-materials business is sold; the automotive/advanced-materials operation in Opelika remains a Hanwha company.
- April 2026 — Hanwha Defense USA commits more than $2 million and about 40 jobs to make Opelika its U.S. integration and test site for K9 Mobile Howitzers — the city’s first defense project.
- Aug. 18, 2026 — The U.S. Army awards Hanwha Defense USA a Mobile Tactical Cannon prototype contract worth up to $262 million; assembly and testing in Opelika.
- Fall 2026 — First prototype targeted; Opelika facility expected fully operational.
Why it matters
Economic development is usually reported as a series of unrelated good days — a ribbon cutting here, an abatement vote there. Hanwha in Opelika is the argument against reading it that way. A supplier that came for Hyundai’s bumpers in 2005 stayed, expanded twice, weathered a corporate restructuring, and two decades later brought a defense program and a nine-figure federal contract to the same industrial park.
That is what a retained employer looks like over time, and it is the strongest case Opelika can make to the next company deciding where to land.
More: Opelika Economic Development Tracker · All Economic Development coverage
Reporting compiled from Opelika Daily News archives (2005, 2009), WTVM, Made in Alabama, 1819 News and company filings.
