PIPE FABRICATOR CONSIDERS MOVE TO ROANOKE AREA

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 17, 1993                   TAG: 9302170055
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
PIPE FABRICATOR CONSIDERS MOVE TO ROANOKE AREA
Connex Pipe, a Marietta, Ohio, fabricator of pipe for power plants, may be interested in moving its operations to the Roanoke Valley or to Georgia, "if we don't work something out" in union negotiations, the company president said Tuesday.
Connex "will consider [a move] if something fails" in talks with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union at Marietta, said Gilbert Gardner, president. The union contract expires in June.
Gardner said he found an attractive site in the Roanoke area but declined to reveal its location.
The prospect of a move surfaced when a Connex employee told the Marietta newspaper that the company had told workers Friday it was moving to Roanoke. But Gardner later said his company "definitely will not move if negotiations work out."
Connex employs about 120 workers at Marietta and an equal number at Pineville, N.C., near Charlotte.
Don Fitzgerald, business agent for Plumbers Local 491 in Roanoke, said Gardner told him last year he was looking at options to move. His local would welcome the work, Fitzgerald said, but he does not want to interfere with the Marietta local.
When companies look at other sites, "a lot of times they are window shopping," Fitzgerald said.
Connex, owned by Wehessoe Plc, a British company, recorded 25 percent of its sales last year in foreign markets such as Shanghai and Taiwan.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB