ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 13, 1997 TAG: 9702130028
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
ROANOKE-based Advance Stores Co. Inc., a mature company in the retail auto-parts business, with 667 stores in 10 states, is still owned by the family of the late Arthur Taubman, who founded it 65 years ago.
Innotech Inc., a young company that produces cutting-edge eyeglass-making machinery - holder of 19 patents with more pending, its stock publicly traded since last March - is led by Ron Blum, who started it just 10 years ago.
The two companies are dissimilar in many ways, yet their stories share a common theme: the dynamism of entrepreneurial capitalism and its impact on cities like Roanoke.
Advance announced this week that it's putting itself up for sale. While one option is to go public as an independent entity, analysts say purchase by one of its larger competitors - for instance, Memphis-based AutoZone Inc. - is more likely. On the same day, Innotech announced it will be acquired by Johnson & Johnson, the health-products giant.
For not much longer, in short, does it appear either will be Roanoke-owned firms.
Yet both are success stories, real-life examples of the lesson that small-to-medium cities like Roanoke can play host to the birth and development of flourishing businesses.
In the case of Advance, the Roanoke Valley has benefited for decades not only from the solid presence of the chain's headquarters and distribution center but also from the civic-mindedness of the Taubman family. Nicholas Taubman, the company's CEO and son of Arthur Taubman, served on Roanoke City Council at a time when it showed farsighted leadership; the Arthur and Grace W. Taubman Foundation is a major force in local philanthropy.
In the case of Innotech, affiliation with the New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson - a global corporation with $21.6 billion in sales last year and an annual research-and-development budget of $2 billion - will provide access to the kind of name recognition that can help penetrate international markets and the kind of capital that can ensure the continued development of its products. Innotech is working on plans to double the size of its Roanoke plant, which currently employs about 100.
For continued success, burgeoning companies must eventually look for capital. In many cases, that capital won't be available locally. And not all home-grown enterprises will remain home-owned, even if significant employment stays here. That's the nature of the market, as this railroad town well understands. As successful home-grown firms are harvested, others must grow up to take their place.
All of which underscores the need to work at nurturing more of those very enterprises that someday will need capital for expansion. These are the likeliest source of the kind of economic growth that eventually creates enough wealth to supply the capital needs of home-grown firms.
The fact is that, for this region, a startling economic-development breakthrough like the landing of a Fortune 500 headquarters would be, well, startling. Growing our own enterprises is far more promising, because far more likely to happen. Advance, more than six decades ago, and Innotech, just one decade ago, are two examples of how it does happen.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB