Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 9, 1995 TAG: 9511090034
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Lee Engineering Co. of Pawtucket, R.I., said the new plant at 1200 Intervale Drive will start production by the end of February. It will lease a 30,000-square-foot building from R. Frazier Inc.
The company chose to put the plant in the Roanoke Valley because it can truck goods efficiently from here to customers in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Lee Engineering specializes in lifts, stackers and portable elevating tables with ergonomic features to minimize worker injuries.
The company sells more than 300 items under the Presto and Regal brand names and has "a lot of new products on the drawing board that we expect to be introducing in the next couple years," said Dick Engelman, director of operations.
Other factors in the move were the Roanoke Valley's operating costs and the state right-to-work law.
The company plans to hire three or four employees initially and 30 by 1997. Engelman said he would like to see the plant have 50 employees by 1998. He said the Salem operation will relieve a space crunch at the company's headquarters.
Lee Engineering, a private company founded in 1947, has posted 20 percent annual growth in sales for the past four or five years, Engelman said.
Wages at the Salem plant will average more than $10 an hour for experienced welders, machinists and assemblers, and employees will receive benefits, said Richard Beard, marketing director of the Roanoke Valley Economic Development Partnership.
Applications are being handled by the Virginia Employment Commission.
Beard, a former salesman for another maker of material-handling equipment, had heard last year from a former colleague that Lee could be planning an expansion. He sent the company a letter but got no reply.
Then Beard attended a Chicago trade show on new industrial technology. While cruising the floor and talking up the Roanoke Valley to anyone who seemed interested, he met Joseph F. Herbert, the owner of Lee Engineering, staffing his company's booth. The men talked for 20 minutes. After the show, Herbert said he wanted to visit the Roanoke area. By the end of his second visit, all that remained was for the company to iron out details for the new plant, Beard said.
by CNB