MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The Alabama Department of Commerce has received a “Top Five Award of Excellence” from Expansion Solutions  Magazine for successfully recruiting, retaining and assisting growing companies in the aerospace and defense industries in 2012.

The magazine, launched in 2002 and designed to inform key site selection consultants and corporate real estate brokers about progressive communities and their benefits, has announced its sixth annual “Top Five ”Awards of Excellence” awards. These awards recognize economic development  organizations that have shown exceptional progress and potential  in the area of  development.

Alabama scored an enormous economic development win in the aviation/aerospace realm in 2012. The state is poised to be part of a major aerospace corridor after its successful recruitment of Airbus to Mobile Brookley Aeroplex.  Airbus unveiled plans in July to construct the Mobile facility, expected to employ as many as 1,000 people by 2016. Construction is slated to begin this summer, with assembly of the A320 family of passenger jets to start in 2015 and first deliveries expected at Mobile Brookley Aeroplex in 2016.

The City of Guntersville, Alabama, also received an award from the magazine as a Top Five Agribusiness organization.

The magazine presented the “Top Five” Awards of  Excellence in the following  categories: Food Processing,  Aerospace/Defense, Agribusiness and Data Centers.