ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120038
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
Wolverine Gasket and Manufacturing Co.'s $12 million expansion project should be completed early next year, though several employees already have begun work in the company's new building.
Wolverine is building a 50,000 square-foot building about a half-mile from the company's existing plant in the Blacksburg Industrial Park; it will house a production line that will make material for engine gaskets.
The expansion will result in 15 to 25 more jobs at the plant in 1996, depending on the number of shifts that will be added, said Plant Manager Al Guarino. About 30 more jobs will be created by 1998.
Six people who have been working at the existing plant already have been transferred to the new facility to help with the installation of equipment. These six people, the equivalent of one shift, will be the initial workers on the production line once it opens. Their positions will be filled by new hirings in January, Guarino said.
"We expect that we will be de-bugging [new equipment] in January," he said.
Michigan-based Wolverine, which employs 300 people, manufactures such automotive products as brake compressors and other gaskets for General Motors, Toyota and other companies. The company first opened a plant in Montgomery County in 1973, and its facility grew from 50,000 to 152,000 square feet during two other expansions.
In preparation for this latest expansion, two new presses for stamping out the automotive parts were delivered Monday morning and should be running within two weeks.
Guarino said the new facility will allow the company to make a new product - material needed for engine gaskets. The production line must be nearly dust-free to make a product that goes into an engine, Guarino said, which is why a new facility was needed.
The production line, which will be computerized, coats thin sheets of metal with rubber. The company will continue to operate two similar production lines in the existing plant, which require two more workers per shift because they are not computerized.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB