Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100092
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ORVIS CHANGE TO ADD HOURS FOR WORKERS
The Orvis Co. announced Thursday it will consolidate its telemarketing, customer service and fishing merchandise warehouse inventory units in Roanoke, a move that will add the equivalent of 40 to 50 jobs.The operations are being transferred from the mail-order company's Manchester, Vt., headquarters.
But instead of hiring new workers, the company will extend the hours of the 200 part-time workers it employed for the Christmas season, said John Moticha, operations vice president for Orvis in Roanoke. The company has about 500 employees locally. Two clerical employees will move from Vermont.
The telemarketing and customer service operations have been moved to take telephone orders from a fishing catalog now in the mail and expected to produce a peak number of calls in February and March.
The moves will enable the company to fulfill orders of its three product lines - gifts and clothes, hunting gear and fishing equipment - from one location, Moticha said. Peak sales for the hunting catalog come from August to October; gifts and clothes sell best in the late fall for Christmas.
Telephone orders from 400 to 500 dealers also were moved to Roanoke. The necessary telephone facilities and computers are in place, Moticha said.
The Roanoke fulfillment center has the space and equipment to accommodate the added operations, he said. The consolidation will enable the company to save some of the expense of recent rate increases from United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service, Moticha said.
Orvis corporate headquarters and the units handling marketing, merchandising and manufacturing of fishing rods will remain in Vermont. They employ more than 50 people.
Orvis also reported that its Christmas sales were 5 percent ahead of projections, Moticha said.