Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 5, 1994 TAG: 9402070267
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
``We'll hopefully have the people hired in three to four months,'' said James D. ``Doc'' Reagan, manager of the Mount Airy, N.C.-based company's Pulaski operations. ``We've started hiring already,'' Reagan said Friday.
Most of the new workers will be knitting socks at some of the 290 machines being added at the plants this year.
Other industries in Pulaski have announced job expansions in recent months, usually by calling news conferences. Renfro has been quietly adding its jobs with no announcement of any kind.
``I guess we don't run out and blow our horn sometimes,'' Reagan said. ``We've been adding 25, 30 jobs all along We've just had real good growth.''
He said the Pulaski operations have expanded by about 15 percent annually for the past seven years. Right now, not counting the newest jobs, employment stands at 1,179, he said.
``We've got part of the machines in, and we are expecting more of them in about two months,'' he said. The rest will be installed a few months after that.
Renfro's main Pulaski office is at its original plant on Jefferson Avenue downtown, where there will be 40 new jobs.
Recently, Renfro built a second plant on Newbern Road and another 70 jobs will be added there.
After the L.A. Joe Department Store closed at a shopping center on East Main Street, Renfro got a special-use permit from Pulaski Town Council to renovate the building as temporary quarters for a third operation. Ninety jobs will be added there.
Pulaski officials agreed recently that, although knitting machines were not specifically covered in the zoning exemption, they would make no more noise than the other machines in the building and that they met the conditions of the original permit. So no further council action was deemed necessary for Renfro to add the knitting machines.
Councilman Junior Black said he had visited the building recently. He said there was virtually no noise detectable outside the building to disturb people in other shopping-center stores.
In fact, Black said, when he went into the Renfro operation, he was surprised at how quiet the machines were.
People interested in the new jobs should pick up application forms at the Jefferson Street plant.
Renfro said it would be nice to get applicants with sewing, dyeing or knitting experience, but that usually does not happen. In most cases, Reagan said, the employees are trained on the job.
They usually start at $5.50 an hour. ``After they're trained, we're looking at $6.75 to $10.25,'' he said.
There also are health, dental, life and disability benefits.
by CNB