Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 28, 1995 TAG: 9505300015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Long
The company's $200 million expansion now under way is expected to add 175 jobs at the Volvo plant, but it also could add an estimated 780 jobs among independent contractors providing parts or services to Volvo by the time it is in operation in 1997.
That should come as no surprise. Volvo has been the genesis of other jobs for years, in the New River Valley and beyond.
Volvo has had help with its success. It has been setting production records for several years, with the help of subcontractors doing off-site work for the truck producer.
Take D&S Distribution, for example.
D&S set up an operation in late 1990 in building space leased from Dublin in the town's industrial park, the former Burlington Mills site.
"We do sequencing and warehousing for Volvo," explained D&S Administrative Manager Jeff Baker.
Sequencing means lining up engines, axles, transmissions or whatever Volvo is working with that day in the order they are installed in trucks coming off production lines.
To keep up with Volvo's record-setting production, D&S has had to expand, too. It will lease from Dublin another 300,000 square feet, on top of the more than 185,000 square feet it already has under lease.
The D&S expansion involved coordination not only with the town of Dublin but other political and business agencies.
The new D&S space had been occupied by Warner-Lambert, a pharmaceutical firm with a plant in the Pulaski County Corporate Center as well as space in the Dublin Industrial Park. Warner-Lambert wanted to maintain a presence in the park, but was willing to work with D&S to accommodate its expansion needs.
Warner-Lambert Operations Supervisor Howard Sadler asked County Administrator Joe Morgan to set up a meeting among representatives from the two international industries, the town of Dublin and other interested parties including Volvo and even senior aides from the office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon. Warner-Lambert was able to vacate the space needed by D&S on a timetable worked out so that neither corporation's operations were hindered, and still maintain enough space to continue its own off-site work in the industrial park.
"The entire process of doing this was predicated on the parties involved taking a very professional and candid view on how we could work together to satisfy everyone's specific requirements," Sadler said. "The way we worked this out and the way it's continuing to work is terrific. ... Everyone from the very beginning wanted to look at the challenges that we had from a cooperative standpoint."
Morgan and Dublin Town Manager Gary Elander agreed that the professional approach all parties took allowed the timing to be worked out to satisfy everyone.
But D&S is just one of the outside industries with operations in the New River Valley because of Volvo. Another is ASC Distributing, which leases 2,500 square feet in the Dublin Industrial Park to provide interior components for Volvo's trucks. Its Dublin plant with about 28 employees is but one of 32 ASC plants nationally, but that one serves Volvo exclusively.
The presence of the Dublin Industrial Park so close to Volvo has been another helpful factor in bringing the support industries to the area. Volvo itself has leased space for some quality control work there, and the park still has space for future industry.
Other contractors serve Volvo along with additional customers. In Dublin, Flexalloy Inc. has 15 employees working on fasteners for Volvo trucks and products for Beach Manufacturing and other customers. Beach, with an estimated 35 employees at its Dublin plant, supplies rubber stripping and other parts to Volvo. Keal Drive Away Co., with 97 workers, helps transport Volvo trucks to buyers.
In Pulaski, Fontaine Modification's 40 employees modify heavy trucks for Volvo. New River Precision Machine, employing about 15, makes truck parts, and the Long-Airdox Co. plant at Pulaski with 125 employees makes conveyor belts for Volvo and others.
Eastern Repair & Fabrication in Christiansburg, with 24 employees, does machine fabrication and tool rebuilding for Volvo and others. In Giles County, Patrick Enterprises Corp. with more than 50 employees at Pembroke does machining, metal fabrication and provides trailers for Volvo and other customers. Rene Composite Materials Corp. at Pearisburg has an estimated 45 employees whose work includes composite body parts for Volvo trucks.
In Wytheville, National Seating Co. moved from leased quarters to a larger 26,250-square-foot building of its own in Fairview Industrial Park and added employees to accommodate the seats it makes for Volvo's expanding truck production.
Support for Volvo comes from as far away as the Eaton Corp. plant in Carroll County, Salem Specialties in Salem, South Star Corp. in Roanoke and Walker Machine in Harrisonburg. And the list may not be complete. There are so many suppliers that even administrators at Volvo have difficulty coming up with a full list.
State and local governments provided a $30 million incentive package last year to preserve the 1,200 jobs already at Volvo and add up to 175 new ones. It also had the effect of keeping hundreds of support jobs at other companies with the expectation that they, too, would grow along with Volvo.
by CNB