Twenty months after ground was broken for the new Caterpillar plant just outside Athens, the 850,000 square-foot facility is now officially open for business.

The first mini hydraulic excavator will roll off the production line Friday.  Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman says eventually small track-type tractors or bulldozers will be manufactured there as well.

"More dirt is moved by excavators than any other product combined, so it's a key piece of our future," he says.

The company has hired 300 employees so far, but he says that number will grow to 1,400 by 2015 when both production lines are fully operational.

Amelia Uriegas was hired in the April to work on the assembly line.

"I come from the unemployment line," she tells WSB's Sandra Parrish.  "I was laid off in 2009 from General Motors; so to be part of a ground-level opportunity with a big corporation again means a lot to me."

Oberhelman says 2,800 additional jobs may also come to Georgia as Caterpillar suppliers look to locate near the company.

Production of both products is being moved here from the company's Sagami, Japan plant which will continue operations as a high-tech component facility.

Gov. Nathan Deal credits the state's business incentives as well as its training program, Quick Start, for luring the company here.

"When they could have gone anywhere in the world literally, I think they become truly one of the great ambassadors for the state of Georgia to say Georgia is, indeed, a good place to do business," he says.