Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990 TAG: 9004030150
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B5 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: GALAX LENGTH: Medium
Framme was among the dignitaries helping dedicate a 250,000-square-foot computerized second plant for Consolidated Glass & Mirror Corp., which has been expanding almost continuously since opening its first Galax plant in 1980.
It had eight employees and first-year sales of $175,000 then. Now it has more than 800 workers at all its plants, an annual payroll of $13 million and annual sales of more than $47 million.
That first plant on Lineberry Road has expanded from 10,000 to 100,000 square feet, making Consolidated, with its second plant, the world's largest mirror fabrication operation.
The new $4 million building, which houses Consolidation's corporate offices, will contain $9 million worth of high-tech glass fabricating equipment to turn out glass and mirror parts for furniture, medicine cabinet and trucking markets. Consolidated also has an innovative program that recycles more than half its plant refuse.
The new plant has 300 employees and room to expand. "This beautiful facility will someday employ up to 1,000 workers and may be our biggest employer in the city," Mayor Van McCarter told the nearly 150 people at the outdoor ceremony in Glendale Industrial Park.
B.C. Wampler, president of Pulaski Furniture Corp., one of Consolidated's major customers, said he has been impressed with the company's willingness to meet the furniture company's needs even when they came at the last minute. "None of this `I can't do it,' " Wampler said.
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, said the fact that Consolidated has kept its expansion in Galax "speaks highly for the work ethic of people in this area."
by CNB