THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406030291
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: Long
``Everyone who joins the round revolution stands to gain,'' Carl-Gustaf Sonden, chief executive officer of the Bastad, Sweden, company, said at the symbolic ribbon-cutting.
{REST} Lindab makes fittings for round duct work - elbows, Ts, Ys, Vs and other bits and pieces - in the new Portsmouth plant in an old Coca-Cola building on Airline Boulevard.
A large company with 76 locations in Europe and about $300 million in annual sales, Lindab expanded to this country last year with a sales office in Stamford, Conn., and the plant in Ports-mouth.
Circular duct work ``has not happened in the United States,'' said Lars Nilsson, Lindab president.
Lindab, he said, is the ``world's largest supplier of round duct sys-tems.''
``That is the future,'' he said.
In the United States, Portsmouth is the beginning of the future.
A Swedish flag flies alongside the American flag on the manicured front lawn at the intersection of Airline and Victory boulevards.
Lindab has turned the former bottling plant into a red, white and blue showplace. It cost between $4 million and $5 million.
Potential customers from across the country were invited to the grand opening this week.
``That's a lot of capital,'' said Stanley Meek of Dan Park Inc. in Toronto. ``I've never known anybody to put $4 million in a plant like this.''
But, he added, ``that's the European philosophy.''
``It shows they're in this for the long term,'' Meek said.
About 50 representatives from other companies were guests of Lindab. The company put them up at the Omni, feted them with champagne at the plant and took them on an evening dinner cruise aboard the American Rover, which flew blue-and-white Lindab flags for the day.
Many of the visitors were competitors. Lindab is aiming to sell them fittings for duct work they make as well as machinery to make round ducts.
``They have carved themselves a niche of certain items,'' said Elliott Weiner of Juniper Industries in New York City. ``They make quality everything and they want to sell us.''
``They believe the industry will accept a better product,'' Meek said.
Sheldon Flatow, also of Juniper, said Lindab's hospitality to competitors was a rare event.
``Believe me, this is not standard for the industry,'' Flatow said.
But Lindab sets it own standards, many of them different from usual American attitudes.
``It's not every day somebody comes in and says they want to be union,'' said Arthur Moore of Washington, D.C., president of the national sheet metal workers union. ``I'm really impressed by the company and by the safety and cleanliness of this plant.''
So is John Doxey of Chesapeake, one of 16 employees already working at the plant.
Doxey, a 30-year union man, left a Norfolk firm where he had worked for 18 years.
``I quit to come here,'' he said. ``I'm the oldest person here.''
Doxey said he never expected to change jobs at age 52.
``But these people treat you with respect and dignity,'' he said. ``I am very happy.''
David E. Pest, the plant manager who came here from a rival company in Columbus, Ohio, said the workers ``have gotten through the learning curve'' and will be increasing productivity over the next few months.
``Business is starting to pick up and I think we'll be adding more people,'' he said.
Lindab forecasts a total employment here of about 60 people.
The former Coca-Cola plant contains about 47,000 square feet. A shabby rental property when Lindab acquired it, the building is now a showplace.
``This plant looks better than our plant in Sweden,'' Nilsson said. ``And we did it ourselves. It doesn't take much.''
Nilsson said the decor evolved.
After the walls of the large plant space were painted white, ``we decided we need to make it more attractive.''
That led to adding blue trim.
On the front of the building, where locals remember watching bottling operations, the glass-fronted office and meeting spaces continue the blue and white motif. In addition, round duct work for air-conditioning has been left exposed on the ceiling and painted red.
``We spent $25 for red paint and it looks good,'' Nilsson said. ``Other places try to hide duct work. We used it.''
Lindab is a relatively young international engineering company - it was founded in 1959. Its headquarters are at Grevie in the community of Bastad.
``It was founded to supply the local market but much has changed,'' Sonden said Wednesday.
In fact, 62 percent of the company's sales were outside Sweden in 1993. The company's long-term objective is to have 75 percent of its sales abroad. Expansion into the United States will speed the company toward that goal.
Sonden does not expect the Portsmouth operation to begin to contribute to the company profits for another year or two.
In 1993, Lindab subsidiaries in Poland and Hungary showed great increases, according to Sonden. The company established a new subsidiary in the Czech Republic a year ago.
In addition to ventilation systems, the company deals in roof and wall sheeting, guttering, downpipes, industrial doors, steel hall kits and structural sections.
The company acquired Spiro International of Switzerland in 1992 and established a machinery division concentrating mainly on machines for manufacturing circular ventilation ducts.
In addition to selling Portsmouth-made fittings to American competitors, Lindab also would like to sell them the Spiro machines to manufacture ducts to use the fittings.
``Circular duct systems circulate more air more efficiently,'' Sonden said.
In addition, he said, the Lindab concept will make round ducts easier to install, and by speeding up design and installation, it will make the use of them more competitive.
``Engineers will design ventilation systems and know the products are available that are tight,'' he said. He referred to the fittings now being made in Portsmouth.
``We are making a better product at less cost,'' he said. ``This not only will benefit us but all those who decide to join the round revolution.''
In addition to the Portsmouth plant, Lindab operates a sales office with a staff of four in Connecticut. Nilsson splits his time between the locations in his efforts to get the U.S. business rolling.
In addition to CEO Sonden, other company executives from Sweden came to Portsmouth for the grand opening. A board meeting was held at the new plant Thursday morning.
``This is a really important event for us,'' Nilsson said. ``This is our first American plant.''
by CNB