Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 2, 1991 TAG: 9104020098
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 28,000-square-foot plant is to open in June with four employees and hopes of expanding to a dozen people, according to Rick Stokes, manager of manufacturing engineering for Eaton's Truck Components Operations in North America.
The employees, to be hired locally, will put the transmissions in sequence to match custom orders for the truck factories, he said. The medium- and heavy-duty transmissions will be assembled after they are shipped to the Hillsville plant.
The new plant will be about 25 miles from the Volvo-GM truck plant at Dublin. The Carroll County location, near access to two interstate highways, also is within a day's drive or less from three or four other potential customers, Stokes said.
Eaton is building during a slow economy because "this is something we have to do for the customer. The economy is going to get better," he said. Eaton may stock parts at the plant in the future, he said.
Some equipment will be moved to Hillsville from the company's Shelbyville, Tenn., plant, where the sequencing operation now is performed. The Shelbyville plant will continue to operate.
Eaton once operated hydraulic-lift and lock plants in Salem. It has more than 41,000 employees in 20 countries making a variety of automotive, industrial, commercial and defense products. Eaton's net income last year was $179 million on sales of $3.6 billion.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 3, 1991.
Truck transmissions will be assembled before they are shipped to a new Eaton Corp. plant to be built at Hillsville. Because of an editing error, a story Tuesday stated they would be assembled after they are shipped to the plant.
Memo: CORRECTION