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

DATE: SATURDAY, July 9, 1994                   TAG: 9407120024
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CONNEX TO RECALL IDLED WORKERS

Connex Pipe Systems Inc. said Friday it expects to recall on Monday some of the 30 employees laid off two weeks ago at the Troutville plant. The company's president, Drew Kershaw, said the cutbacks were due to a delay in contracts rather than a downturn in business. He said the company still has 150 employees.

Kershaw said the company, which manufactures high-pressure piping systems for electric, gas and oil plants, said specification drawings for a production contract were to have arrived in May, but were delayed making the layoffs necessary.

"That work is not lost," said Kershaw, who became president in May. He said, however, that he didn't know how many people were being recalled for next week.

The layoffs included production and non-production employees, he said.

Connex moved from Marietta, Ohio, to the Roanoke Valley in June 1993, taking over a building once occupied by Roanoke Iron & Bridge Co. on Virginia 651. Connex is a unit of Britain-based Whessoe Group Plc.

by CNB