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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 7, 1995                   TAG: 9502070052
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRUCK CENTER EXPANDING

Virginia Truck Center Inc. has begun construction of a 25,000-square-foot addition to its truck leasing and sales facility in Botetourt County. The new facilities will add a repair and body shop next to the company's headquarters on Route 11 in North Hollins.

The truck center addition to Virginia Truck Center's 40,000-square-foot existing facilities should be completed by early May. It will replace the repair shop that has been located on Orange Avenue in Roanoke. That shop won't close, but its service will be limited to repairing medium-size trailers.

Virginia Truck also has an office in Richmond and a small Montvale repair shop.

``There just wasn't enough space downtown [for trailer repair] ... It was real cramped up there,'' said Frank Ellett, the company's president.

But money tells part of the story behind the move.

``[Business] taxes are substantially higher in the city of Roanoke,'' Ellett said.

The new building, which has space for a trailer parts warehouse and a trailer garage, also will help the center take a stab at a new branch of the tractor-trailer business - painting. ``There's a lot of demand for it, and there's not a lot of people who do it in the community,'' Ellett said.

The company will invest $1.5 million in the new building and equipment. Ellett said it will mean growth for his company, which posts annual sales of about $25 million.

In 1992, the company won a 17-county franchise on sales and service for GMC medium-size trucks. It has had the franchise rights on Mack trucks for 50 years, Ellett said, and also sells Freightliners.

The existing Route 11 shop, which houses a tractor parts warehouse and office space, employs 75 people. The new facility will create about 15 new jobs for mechanics, body shop workers and painters.

by CNB