ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 18, 1996 TAG: 9601180059
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: NEWBERN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Renfro Corp. will expand its Newbern Road plant in Pulaski by the end of the year and add, in time, more than 400 employees to its existing work force.
The corporation already employs about 1,200 people.
The Pulaski County Industrial Development Authority this week approved issuing up to $4 million in industrial revenue bonds for the 105,000-square-foot expansion. Pulaski Town Council, which also had to approve the measure because it involves an operation within the town limits, gave its approval Tuesday night.
Renfro manufactures fashion socks. The expansion will allow the corporation to move knitting and seaming operations from leased facilities in a former department store on Virginia 99 (East Main Street) to its Newbern Road plant, built in 1989 along Bob White Boulevard. The main plant is on Jefferson Avenue. All three locations lie within the town of Pulaski.
The leased facilities are in a renovated store building last occupied by an L.A. Joe Department Store. Pulaski Town Council approved a special-use permit Aug. 23, 1993, allowing the location of a manufacturing facility in the building as long as it met conditions such as having low-noise machines.
Construction is expected to get under way within three months.
Renfro has its headquarters in Mount Airy, N.C. It has gradually grown in Pulaski since establishing its Jefferson Street plant in 1986. The second plant on Newbern Road came three years later. The corporation began leasing the former department store space three years ago.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB