Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020086
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-12 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Business, government and academic officials stood together Thursday and pounded nails into a 2-by-4 at the unveiling of Mid Continent Nail Corp., at the Radford Industrial Park, symbolically sealing what everyone said has so far been a friendly and fruitful partnership.
The plant will begin production by the middle of the month with about 30 employees, said David Libla, president of the company which is headquartered in St. Louis, Mo. Within two to three years, the plant will employ about 75 people, and will run 24 hours a day, five days a week.
Fifteen people have already been hired, said plant manager Mike Morris. The Virginia Employment Commission and Bright Services are handling further hiring.
Libla told about 80 people gathered Thursday that his company wanted to open a plant near its East Coast customers, and it wanted to be near Virginia Tech, a leader in forest products and pallet research. Many of the fasteners Mid Continent Nail Corp. will make will be used to produce pallets, an industry with $4 billion in sales nationwide last year, Libla said. Mid Continent is a subsidiary of Libla Industries, which employs 560 people in six companies. It produced 25 million pounds of fasteners last year, representing a 10 percent market share.
But company officials looked at lots of communities in Southwest Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, he said.
"Everybody we talked with was more interested in getting us into Southwest Virginia than in getting our plant into their community."
Radford sold the building and 6.5 acres to the company for $600,000, a reduced price, said Jill Barr, director of economic development for the city. Radford also loaned Mid Continent $300,000 and approved $3.5 million in Industrial Development Revenue bonds. Thursday, Gayle Morgan, deputy secretary for commerce and trade for Virginia, gave Mayor Tom Starnes a check for $60,000 to be used to complete the 47,200-square-foot building, which has been empty since it was erected 15 months ago.
Libla said he plans to spend $3 million to $5 million on the building and equipment.
Morgan said the way city, university and state government officials cooperated "demonstrates how a true partnership can work."
Starnes said a nearby community, which he did not name, did not have facilities suitable for the plant and gave Radford the initial lead about Mid Continent.
by CNB