Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 15, 1995 TAG: 9501280033
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You've heard of the ripple effect, how the presence of one company can spin off jobs at related firms in the local economy? Here are some of the ways the concentration of distribution companies in the Roanoke Valley has created other jobs in the region:
Because Orvis is here, so is the FedEx jet.
Until October, FedEx packages out of Roanoke had to be trucked to Greensboro. Then FedEx inked a deal with Orvis to carry most of that company's cargo; now FedEx flies a jet into Roanoke, which gives Orvis - and anyone else shipping via FedEx - later shipping times, a potentially important competitive advantage for other companies in Western Virginia, as well.
Because Home Shopping Network is here, so is the United Parcel Service regional hub.
Some shipping companies route all their packages to a central hub, sort them, then send them back out again. The UPS shipping system is more decentralized and employs a series of regional hubs across the country. Virginia has two of them; one in Richmond, a second that opened Roanoke in 1991, primarily because of the growth of packages from the Home Shopping Network fulfillment center in Salem. With the UPS regional hub came two jets each morning and another two jet each night, and some 636 jobs.
Just as with FedEx, the later shipping times that the UPS hub provides has gives the region another selling point when attracting distribution facilities. Looking for proof? No need to squint.
Because UPS is here, Bausch & Lomb is in Lynchburg.
When the Rochester, N.Y.-based contact lens maker Bausch & Lomb went looking for a site to put a new distribution center, Roanoke's UPS hub put the region on the short list.
"The main factor was getting close to a carrier that allowed us to ship late in the day," says Michael Tardugno, operations vice president. The Roanoke regional hub, because its only a short flight from the UPS main hub in Louisville, provides some of the latest departure times in the UPS network.
But UPS also offers ground transportation rates, which was the clincher. "From Roanoke, we can reach everywhere west to the Mississippi with second-day ground transportation," Tardugno says. So Bausch & Lomb's 80 jobs wound up in Lynchburg; UPS's shipping times are so convenient, that the hour's drive from the Hill City hardly matters, Tardugno says. Speaking of Lynchburg . . .
Because J. Crew is in Lynchburg, Valley Transport is in Roanoke.
The J. Crew mail-order house needed somebody to haul its clothing from New York's garment district to its Lynchburg distribution center. Then the company needed somebody to haul its packages to four drop-points across the country. In 1988, trucking broker Tom Waters founded Valley Transport to do just that. Today, the Roanoke trucking firm has 85 employees - and some 85 percent of its business is hauling J. Crew packages.
That's good news for another Roanoke Valley company, too - Virginia Truck Center near Cloverdale, which sells tractor trailers. "Its boosted our business," says truck center president Frank Ellett. "We sell him trucks." With the Valley Transport fleet already up to 28 tractor-trailers, that's big business, too.
Because so many mail-order houses are here, so is CTC Distribution Services.
The Minnesota-based trucking company is one of the best indicators that Roanoke has emerged as a mail-order center. CTC is a "freight consolidator" and "zone skipper" for mail-order houses - "consolidating" loads from different companies headed for the same part of the country, then trucking them to the bulk-mail center there, to "skip" the postal zones and qualify for cheaper rates.
Yet another distribution company drawn by the Home Shopping Network fulfillment center, CTC now services many of the valley's other mail-order firms - and draws some business from as far away as North Carolina. In fact, CTC has become a magnet itself: Its presence was one of the factors that helped persuade Hanover Direct to build a second distribution center here, branch manager Mike Smith says. And that's not all. "I foresee others to come," he says.
Because Elizabeth Arden is here, Lawrence Transportation Systems is growing.
"Elizabeth Arden is a lot bigger than people give them credit for," says Chip Lawrence, president of Lawrence Transportation Systems, a Roanoke-based trucking company. He's now hauling six to seven tractor-trailers full of raw materials for perfume each day from New York to Arden's Roanoke plant. "That's a lot of women's perfume," Lawrence says. "I didn't know there was that much perfume in the world."
But Lawrence's biggest growth has come from hauling furniture out of the Carolinas. "Furniture, it's growing like crazy," Lawrence says. "The customer I started with had four loads a week; now it's approaching 40 loads a week. I started in as a minor carrier. As they've grown, they've given me all their growth; now I've become their primary carrier," hauling loads as far away as Chicago and Kansas City.
Lawrence has grown, too. He now employs 350 people - plus another 80 independent contractors. He's also outgrown his Roanoke location, and is now developing a new terminal on a 17-acre site in Botetourt County.
Because Interstate 81 is here, so are companies serving the highway's growing truck traffic.
And we don't just mean truckstops.
Consider Virginia Truck Center, which operates a tractor-trailer garage near Hollins. One-third of the company's business comes from what Ellett calls "transient 18-wheelers." And that's a growth market.
Contrary to popular perception, I-81 is not the truck route on the East Coast. I-95 has slightly more truck traffic, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation. Nevertheless, the number of tractor-trailers rolling past the Roanoke Valley is going up -more than 36 percent from 1983 to 1988, the last year for which figures are available.
Motorists may not be happy about that, but Ellett sure is. In 20 years, Virginia Truck Center has grown from 15 employees to its current 85 - and is building a new addition to accomodate the growth.
by CNB