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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 21, 1995                   TAG: 9501230032
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM'S IN A WHIRL OVER JACUZZI PLANT

Jacuzzi Whirlpool Baths of Walnut Creek, Calif., said Friday it will open its first hot-tub plant outside California at 2050 Cook Drive, Salem.

Production will be in full swing at 150 to 200 units daily by July, with units shipped throughout the East and Midwest, and Central and Latin America, the company said.

With plans to hire 150 employees locally, Jacuzzi will have the largest work force among companies to open in Salem in the past 27 months, said Joe Yates, the city's planning and development director. The Orkand Corp. opened an electronic mail-sorting center in October 1992; it now employs 450.

Jacuzzi will need 300 people in Salem if its brisk sales continue, said Beth Doughty, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership. Doughty, Salem officials and state representatives helped the company headed by Roy Jacuzzi choose the Roanoke Valley for its first major expansion outside California.

"This new facility enables us to meet the growing demand nationwide for Jacuzzi products and allows our customers to enjoy the benefits of a broader manufacturing base," said Jacuzzi, president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

Except for a Little Rock, Ark., pump factory, the Salem plant will be Jacuzzi's only U.S. manufacturing site outside its home state, where it has seven plants. The company declined to say how much its new plant will cost to set up.

Jacuzzi will lend prestige to the area while adding to the area's already robust job growth, Doughty said.

"To have that company here is a compliment to the Roanoke Valley and a super addition," she said.

Jacuzzi describes itself as the nation's largest whirlpool-bath maker and belongs to Hanson Plc., a British conglomerate whose products range from cookware to cranes. The Hanson name is not unfamiliar in the Roanoke Valley area. It operates MW Manufacturers Inc. in Rocky Mount, which makes windows.

Another sister company to Jacuzzi wowed local business leaders five years ago with a proposal to bring 1,000 jobs to Salem to manufacture work platforms for its Grove Worldwide Manlift Operations unit. After three years, Grove Worldwide abandoned plans for a Salem operation, citing economic uncertainties in the construction industry, and laid off its 28 employees.

Jacuzzi has leased the same building once rented by Grove Worldwide, which has about 4 acres of indoor space and is owned by Hart-Salem Associates of Shady Grove, Pa.

The Jacuzzi jobs will pay $7 to $14 an hour, comparable to those jobs promised by Grove Worldwide, Doughty said. The Virginia Employment Commission will screen applicants.

Jacuzzi invented the whirlpool bath, its brochures state. The Salem plant is to make models from all its product lines. That includes "J-Dream" shower units that double as steam baths, come with stereo sound and sell at retail for as much as $9,000, plus installation. Its bathtubs range in price from $1,000 to $4,000, while spas - tubs with heated, chemically treated water - range from $2,000 to $5,000.

The plant won't present any special problems for the city, according to Yates. "They're not big water users and not big sewer users and moderate on electricity," Yates said.