Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 7, 1994 TAG: 9407080034
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The company is renovating the former Blue Ridge Transfer quarters on Hollins Road and expects to be ready to sell parts for the trucks by mid-July.
Thomas W. Mohr, company president, said he is interviewing mechanics and should be ready to offer truck servicing by August. Truck sales will be added by September.
Mohr and his family are moving to the valley so that he can run the business. His father, William F. Mohr, who is chairman of the company, will oversee the Harrisonburg operation.
Thomas Mohr said he hopes to use Highway Motors' 65 years of operation as a selling point in establishing the business in the Roanoke Valley. He noted that since 1983, when his family bought the Harrisonburg company, the previous International dealership in the area changed hands twice and then closed.
He said the Harrisonburg location has 36 employees. He will start with six employees in this area, Mohr said.
He said Navistar International Transportation Corp., the Chicago truck manufacturer of diesel trucks, has granted Highway Motors a territory of 28 counties in an area that stretches from Winchester to Martinsville, Blacksburg and Charlottesville.
Mohr said he expects the Hollins location to be temporary and that within two to three years the company can grow its business so that it can build a facility. Highway began as a farm implement company, he said.
This is the second Harrisonburg trucking company to move operations to the Roanoke Valley. Truck Enterprises Roanoke Inc. has been in the area more than 13 years.
by CNB