Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, August 27, 1994 TAG: 9408290035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Partly as a result of Volvo GM Heavy Truck Corp.'s expansion in Dublin, Renee Composite Materials Ltd. is investing $500,000 in an expansion that will require 30 new hirings there by January. It now employs 75 workers.
Mike Grenier, materials purchasing manager for the maker of truck hoods and other parts, said the company is making one-third more product this year than last and expects to make one-third more next year.
"The truck industry is growing, so we're growing with it," Grenier said. The North American Free Trade Act has had an impact on the company's business, opening up more trade with Canada and prompting a major customer to build a new manufacturing plant in Mexico.
Meanwhile, Shoffner Industries Inc., a Burlington, N.C.-based builder of roof trusses, has been working for a couple of months suiting a shell building in the Giles County Industrial Park to its needs. It plans to start operations in about a month, said Carroll Shoffner, the company's owner.
At start-up it will employ 10 to 15 people, and the company expects to hire up to 60 depending on how business goes over the next two years, he said.
A 30-year-old company with 11 plants scattered across the mid-Atlantic states, Shoffner Industries employs between 600 and 700 and expects $70 million in revenues this year, Shoffner said.
"We've been extremely busy for the last year," he said. With its business base in Southwest Virginia and West Virginia expanding, "it warranted putting in another plant."
He said the 50,000-square-foot shell building was a plus in deciding to move to the industrial park because it allowed for a quicker start-up. The company is investing $2 million to $3 million in the site.
For Giles County officials, having shell buildings ready for prospective employers has been a proven winner in the economic development game.
"We've been very successful in our shell building program," said Giles County Industrial Authority Chairman Harold Chafin. He said the shell building and some adjacent property was sold for around $500,000, with the initial cost of the building at a little more than half that.
"I hope that we'll take the money and build another shell building," county Supervisor Ted Timberlake said. Five already have been built.
by CNB