Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992 TAG: 9201180164
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES and DWAYNE YANCEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
DOMINION'S LAYOFFS HAVE FOLKS NERVOUS, BUT HOPEFUL
Ever since the Roanoke Valley lost the railroad headquarters a decade ago, it has worried that something might happen to its other corporate giant, Dominion Bankshares Corp. So last week's cutbacks rattled some business leaders. But others were reassured, relieved the bank was acting to maintain its profitability.It wasn't the number of Dominion Bankshares Corp. layoffs that worried folks. It was who did the laying off.
After all, this is the company whose name dominates Roanoke's skyline, whose chairman dominates the cultural and business communities, and whose largesse undergirds a staggering array of charitable causes, from the Turning Point, a battered-women's shelter, to the Center in the Square, Roanoke's high-profile arts complex.
"People aren't used to thinking of Dominion as just another large employer," said Roanoke lawyer and developer Gilbert Butler Jr. "In Roanoke, it's so much more than that. It's one of the oldest corporate citizens. It's one of the highest-profile corporate citizens. It takes on this exalted position. . . ."
This is the company that in many ways has replaced the railroad as the command post of Roanoke's economy - what Norfolk Southern Corp. finance chief John Turbyfill calls "the town's leading corporation."
"We're used to hearing about the [former Norfolk & Western] railroad being cyclical and hiring and laying off," Butler said. "But when it comes to a bastion of stability and prominence in the community, like a bank, and especially Dominion Bank in Roanoke, why it's like the federal government laying people off. It's the end of the world happening. I don't think anyone thought that Dominion Bank, that rock of stability, would lay people off and especially on that scale . . .. It's pretty scary. It's really scary."
Wednesday, Dominion said it plans to cut 10 percent of its systemwide work force - some 500 jobs - over the next year; will close 30 branches, including two in the Roanoke Valley; will abolish immediately its unit that leases equipment and vehicles to businesses. Officials said the net loss of jobs in the valley will total 50, and the total savings could be $10 million.
Most community leaders appear to be taking the news more calmly than Butler, saying they would rather see the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in the valley trim workers now than later be dismembered and swallowed by a larger institution.
"You read about General Motors and companies like that cutting back, but when it hits right here - especially a large company, like Dominion, that we have a lot of confidence in - you begin to worry," said Larry Hamlar, a Roanoke funeral home operator.
However, "I'd rather see them retrench a little bit and be on a firmer foundation than go on a little bit and find the whole place being run by a big company in New York or Chicago or someplace," he said.
Bank officials are seeking to put the cutbacks in an industrywide perspective. "Dominion is not going through anything that's unusual," the bank's chief economist, Glenn Bowman, said Friday. "It's unusual for Dominion and it's unusual for this local market, but it's not unusual for the broader marketplace."
"The Dominon Bank thing is nothing," agreed Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. founder John Hancock Jr., a patriarch of the Roanoke business community. "It's a great institution and it's going to stay here."
He hopes.
There is a deep-seated fear of Dominion's possible demise as a Roanoke-based company - the traumatic legacy of the railroad's moving its headquarters to Norfolk a decade ago - that makes the bank's every move the subject of intense speculation. "It's all I've heard for three days," Butler said. Some rumors even had Dominion Chairman Warner Dalhouse resigning and the company's president, David Caudill, retiring - suggestions Dalhouse laughed off.
Yet Dominion's importance to Roanoke also makes the layoffs palatable, almost welcome, to many.
"I'm very ambivalent about the whole thing," said Laban Johnson, Roanoke's special events coordinator and a pillar of the arts community. "My fear as a Roanoker is that this is a harbinger of worse times to come economically. That's my emotional response. Intellectually, I think this is bound to make the bank a stronger institution."
Business leaders, who themselves have been grappling with dwindling revenue and rising labor costs, are sympathetic to Dominion's moves. "The outside view is if it's healthy for the bank to do this, if it becomes profitable, then it's good for the community," said Larry Davidson, president of Davidsons, a Roanoke men's clothing chain.
"I'd much rather see this kind of news than continued reports of weak earnings, bad loans, that kind of thing," said Briggs Andrews, general counsel for Carilion Health System. "My biggest concern . . . is that they are looked [upon] as the new railroad and are looked upon to take care of Roanoke."
And take care of Roanoke it has - or did, until the recession.
Dominion is a major contributor to valley arts and cultural groups - giving an estimated $1 million to Center in the Square alone since its opening in 1983. It played a pivotal role in landing the '91 Metro Conference basketball tournament for Roanoke. Its executives permeate the valley's power structure, from City Council to the Henry Street Festival to the Roanoke Symphony Society to the United Way.
"We're going to miss the financial support, but I hope they'll continue their people support," said Charles Lunsford, president and general manager of Center in the Square. "Dominion is philanthropically a tremendous leader."
That's why Roanoke clings to Dominion.
"You can draw a parallel with the railroad," said state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke. "The railroad still employs a number of people, but is its upper-level management as concerned about Roanoke as they are about Norfolk or Atlanta or wherever they live?"
Few understate Dominion's importance to the community, and hope the belt-tightening announced this week will ensure the bank's continued presence here. "They're doing what they have got to do," the railroad's Turbyfill said. "The alternative is worse. I would describe this as someone who's doing what they need to do to remain a pillar of the community."
Staff writers Jeff DeBell and Joel Turner contributed to this report.