Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 31, 1995 TAG: 9503310064
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BUCHANAN LENGTH: Medium
Meadville Forging Co. of Meadville, Pa., confirmed Thursday that the Buchanan site, on U.S. 11 next to James River Limestone, is one of 50 being considered by the company.
Jim Link, the company's marketing vice president, said Meadville's search is still preliminary, but it does have plans to build another plant.
Meadville Forging specializes in making components used by other manufacturers. The Buchanan site is particularly attractive to the company because of its ongoing business relationship with The Timken Co., a $1.9 billion (1994 sales) company that operates a plant in Altavista.
Meadville Forging provides Timken with about 2.5 million forged steel cups a year that are used in the production of tapered, antifriction roller bearings installed in the front axles of four-wheel drive trucks.
Bob Logston, manager of Timken's Altavista plant, said he was aware that Meadville had looked at a site in Botetourt County.
Modern manufacturers like having suppliers of components within a day's drive of their plants. The Buchanan site, which is about four miles from Interstate 81, is a 90-minute drive from Altavista.
Logston said Meadville is one of the key suppliers for the Timken's operation, which moved just outside the southern Campbell County community in 1991.
Meadville, which has about 300 employees in its main plant in Pennsylvania, reported about $45 million in national sales last year. The privately held company, a unit of Keller Group Inc. of Northfield, Ill., does not report profits.
Steve Kohler, director of the Crawford County (Pa.) Development Corp., said Meadville is a quality company that does not pollute the environment.
"There are certain companies that you consider blue chip," Kohler said. "This is one of them. They're like the IBM of forging."
In Meadville, the company uses robots in the manufacturing process.
Botetourt County officials declined to confirm Meadville's interest.
Chuck Whiting, whose 35-acre site along the James River is the focus of the attention, said he isn't talking directly with the company. He's leaving that task to county officials, although he has been told the company has looked at the site.
"They've been down here two or three times," he said.
by CNB