ROANOKE TIMES 

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995                   TAG: 9503080082
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FLOYD                                LENGTH: Medium

PLANT ADDITION BRINGING 25 JOBS TO FLOYD COUNTY

Hollingsworth & Vose Co. will build a $7 million addition to its Floyd County plant, creating 25 new jobs in the process, the company said Tuesday.

The company will shut down one of its Massachusetts plants and transfer operations to Floyd County's industrial park, where it has operated a 100-employee plant since 1977. Additional machinery will be moved in to produce another line of fabrics, and a new building will be built for warehouse, shipping and receiving operations. Hiring should begin this summer, a company official said.

Darrell Phillips, senior vice president for resources at the company's Walpole, Mass., headquarters, said employees at the Massachusetts plant had been offered jobs in Floyd County, but there were no takers. "They don't know the pleasure of Virginia," he said.

"We're proud as punch," Floyd County Administrator Randy Arno said about the expansion. The county's industrial development authority and the state will spend nearly $180,000 to develop the site.

The state contributed $65,000 toward the expansion through a grant from the Governor's Opportunity Fund. That money will go toward site preparation and for building a storm sewer, dock and access road, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Arno said the county intended to develop the "footprint" for the building by performing grading and fill work. While it is being worked on, Hollingsworth & Vose will transfer ownership of the property to the county, which will transfer ownership back to the company when it is ready to build the expansion.

If, for some reason, the company decides not to build, "we've got another industrial site," Arno said. "Everybody wins."

Phillips said Appalachian Power Co.'s low rates went a long way toward prompting the decision to expand in Virginia. The work force and the cooperation provided by the county and the state sealed the deal. "It's a very pro-business environment," he said.

The Floyd County plant makes fabrics used to protect computer disks, in clothing and in filtration devices for the auto industry. 


 by CNB