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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 25, 1994                   TAG: 9405250139
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                LENGTH: Short

VOLVO GM EXPANSION TO INCLUDE PAINT FACILITY|

The expansion at the Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp. plant in Pulaski County will include a high-volume paint facility designed to exceed Environmental Protection Agency standards for such operations.

Gov. George Allen, following his speech at Monday's ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion, said the facility will be Volvo GM's first in the United States. Its only paint facilities now are in Sweden.

The main part of the expansion will be a new cab-assembly plant for the trucks made at the New River Valley center. All the new facilities are scheduled to be in operation sometime in 1997.

The plant has about 1,400 employees. The expansion will create more than 175 jobs at the plant, and hundreds more in support operations outside the plant.

The new assembly plant will be able to produce 70 cabs a day when it begins operation. A further expansion is planned that would increase the number to 110 a day.

The paint facility is based on Volvo technology pioneered in Sweden. It will supply painted cabs for both the company's assembly plants.

The company plans to increase the production capacity for White GMC trucks at the Dublin plant by 20 percent by the end of next year.

In 1993, Volvo GM was America's third-ranked Class 8 truck manufacturer.

The company sold more than 20,000 trucks last year in the United States, earning it a 12.3 percent share of the heavy truck market. It exported nearly 2,600 vehicles.

by CNB