Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 1, 1993 TAG: 9306010238
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MICHAEL STOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Two shifts of employees work 18 hours a day making notebooks, folders, binders and dozens of other school products that will be on store shelves around the country before school starts again this fall.
During its busy season from March to July, Plymouth will make 200,000 to 300,000 units a day. About 60 percent of its yearly production is during the back-to-school season.
"This is our busiest time," said plant Superintendent Jack Hanrahan. "If it's not done by July, then we're in trouble."
To cope with the heavy production schedule, Plymouth hired about 50 temporary workers who will be let go when the orders slow in the fall.
Plymouth has about 120 permanent employees. It started local production in January 1992 after the 18-year-old business moved to the Radford Industrial Park from New Jersey.
Some of the company's biggest sellers feature pictures of Peanuts comic stars, including Charlie Brown and Snoopy.
For about a decade, Hanrahan said, Plymouth has held the only license to produce notebooks and other paper products featuring the Peanuts gang.
Several years ago, when the company was still in New Jersey, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz visited the factory to see the process. While Schulz's signature is etched at the bottom of every notebook featuring one of his characters, the cartoonist doesn't draw all of them.
In fact, Hanrahan said, Plymouth staff artists sometimes draw the Peanuts characters, but they can't be reproduced until they are approved by Schulz.
The company also holds licenses to produce notebooks featuring Barbie and the cast of the television series "Beverly Hills 90210." Such licenses are very expensive, Hanrahan said, and the company buys only four or five a year.
Most of the notebooks and tablets that Plymouth produces use designs and art drawn in-house by members of the company's art department. The styles include panda bears, monkeys, cats and clowns.
Plymouth's Radford facility includes 25 offices, two darkrooms, 75,000 square feet of manufacturing space and 70,000 square feet of warehouse.
The building, site improvements and some moving costs were financed by $4.2 million in industrial bonds issued by the Radford Industrial Development Authority.
In the move from New Jersey, it took 280 tractor-trailers to carry all of its cutting, folding, printing, wiring and other machinery.
Plymouth President Robert Pappas said the company has worked most of the kinks out at the plant and he's glad it came to Radford.
"Virginia is good for Plymouth," he said.
Tractor-trailers packed with Plymouth products leave Radford daily and head to Kmarts, Wal-Marts, Woolworths, Toys-R-Us and other stores all over the country. Plymouth also exports to Japan, Mexico and Canada.
All of Plymouth's products say they are made in Radford.
It's the type of exposure the city couldn't begin to put a price on, said Bob Lloyd, Radford's assistant city manager.
"We'll take all that type of exposure we can get," he said.
Shortly after Plymouth came to the New River Valley, Hanrahan said, he would get calls from vendors who wanted to know where in the heck Radford was.
"That doesn't happen anymore," he said. "Everyone's real happy with the products we are making here."
Pappas wouldn't release the sales figures, but he said the retail market is soft and he expects sales to drop about 20 percent this year.
"I wish we had more business," he said, but he figures Plymouth is on the right track.
by CNB