Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994 TAG: 9402230295
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
A proposal calls for a $200 million expansion, and would bring a cab production facility and a high-volume paint facility to the plant, said Bill Brubaker, manager of the 1,400-worker plant in Dublin.
Bill Walther, director of corporate affairs with the company's corporate headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., also said the company is looking into the possibility.
"Call it a 'preference' if you will," Bill Walther said of the recommendation. The proposal will be put forth to the company's board of directors at its next meeting in early March.
Brubaker said the corporation is looking at expanding his plant, then later phasing out a similar plant in Orrville, Ohio, south of Akron.
Neither Walther nor Brubaker would expound on the the number of jobs an expansion might bring, citing the early nature of the proposal. Brubaker also declined comment on how the expansion would affect the Ohio plant.
But would the expansion be a boon for his plant? "Oh yeah," Brubaker said.
"It would be a significant expansion," Walther said. But, "we're awfully early in the process."
The cab production plant in Orrville employs about170 people. According to newspaper reports, it and a nearby stamping plant may be up for sale.
If the expansion proposal is approved by the board and later by Volvo International, Walther said, negotiations would begin with the union and the state.
Last month, Walther shielded the company against a rumor that it might be looking to move the New River Valley facility to a North Carolina site, saying the company is continuously re-evaluating the cost of where and how it does business.
"An internal evaluation ... has shown that we'd like to stay and expand at our existing site," he said.
by CNB