THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507150582
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, BUSINESS WEEKLY
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: Long : 144 lines
The moment he saw the finished product, Tommy Robinson decided maybe he was on to something, maybe he'd found the key to the future for his family's business.
As a favor to the financially strapped Nansemond-Suffolk Rescue Squad, Robinson had worked single-handedly for six months to build the shiny, red-and-white ambulance at Robinson Body Works, a company known for manufacturing truck bodies.
But when the new vehicle rolled onto Windsor Boulevard for the first time nearly 20 years ago, its siren blasting, Robinson realized he'd done his own company the bigger favor.
Before that first ambulance even hit the road, the Nansemond-Suffolk squad had ordered a second one. And within two months after Nansemond-Suffolk's new ambulance went into service, Robinson, then 30 years old, had nine orders from localities and volunteer departments across Hampton Roads.
So it's no wonder that Robinson Body Works, still at 11 W. Windsor Blvd., is also known as Robinson Ambulances.
It was M.H. Robinson who started the small company in the middle of tiny Windsor more than 50 years ago. Back then, his specialty was truck bodies, from dump trucks to refrigerated vans.
But Robinson Body Works hasn't built a truck body since the late 1980s, when a nationwide slump hit the trucking industry.
Although ambulance orders continued to roll in after the initial vehicle for the Nansemond-Suffolk squad, the company didn't begin marketing its ambulance-building services until April, when the small business took its sharp turn and Tommy Robinson, 50, took over the helm.
Nearly six decades after opening the company, M.H. Robinson, now 78, retired and sold his shares.
Tommy bought the bulk of the shares, becoming primary shareholder and company president. His younger brother, Buddy, owns the remaining stock and, as vice president of operations, directly oversees building the vehicles.
``Basically, I've moved into more of an administrative and marketing role,'' Tommy Robinson said. ``Once I get the business reorganized, I'm planning to hit the road and market our ambulances . . . so Buddy will have work and the resources he needs to get it done.''
Most of the company's customers are municipal and volunteer rescue squads throughout southeastern Virginia. But the number of clients from other parts of Virginia - as well as North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware - has been growing steadily in recent months.
And that has increased Robinson Ambulances' employment. Just after Tommy and Buddy took over the reins in April, they added three employees to the six they had - and Tommy says he could add two or three more by summer's end, depending on business.
The Windsor firm's full-scale plunge into the ambulance niche comes at an opportune time. Companies throughout the nation are buying fewer heavy trucks as the economy slows. Analysts forecast '96 sales of 165,000 heavy trucks, down from 195,000 vehicles in '95. Some warn of an even an deeper downturn.
With the emphasis on ambulances, however, the Robinsons aren't geared as tightly to the ups and downs of the overall economy. They're plugged into an entirely different market: Local government.
After the change in leadership in April, the Robinson brothers sat down and mapped out a growth plan for Robinson Body Works. Their goal is to double the company's ambulance production by 1997 - to begin manufacturing between 12 and 15 vehicles a year.
They also want to double the number of changeovers - installations of existing ambulance vans on new truck chassis. Last year, Tommy Robinson said, the company did six changeovers.
New ambulances cost about $65,000, he said. Because ambulance bodies often outlast the truck chassis they are installed on, rescue squads can save up to $30,000 by putting the old van onto a new chassis. And Robinson Ambulances is innovative as well.
Several months ago, the company began marketing an original design, the ROSE 1 - for Rapid On-scene Special Events vehicle.
It is, medically speaking, a souped-up golf cart, packed with most of the emergency amenities you'd find in a full-size ambulance. The ROSE 1 is the same size and travels about the same speed as a golf cart.
This miniature ambulance is designed to maneuver easily through crowds - large festivals like Norfolk's annual Harborfest, or big outdoor rock concerts, for example. The patient is secured on top of the vehicle, within easy reach of its medical equipment, and taken to the nearest real ambulance or on-site medical facility.
It sells for about $6,000, and Robinson Ambulances has a patent pending. Within the next few weeks, Robinson will mail new brochures promoting the ROSE 1 to cities that hold festivals and hospitals that could use it to transport patients from helipads.
Robinson also hopes to drum up more business by visiting past and potential customers. After making appointments by phone, he will visit them and show them the newest product manufactured by Robinson Body Works.
Another of his changes - and one of his first executive actions - was installing a computer in his office. That done, employees were paid with checks in May for the first time. Ever. Up till then, they had been handed pay stubs in envelopes filled with the appropriate amount of cash.
Robinson says the computer also will help the company keep more accurate records.
The Robinsons have come a long way in the 20 years since Tommy turned out his first ambulance for the Nansemond-Suffolk Rescue Squad.
``The rescue squad paid for the materials, and we donated the labor for that ambulance,'' M.H. Robinson recalled recently. ``That first one was a real classy thing, better than ones owned by a lot of cities at the time.''
Tommy Robinson pushed a toy ambulance back and forth across his desk - the same desk his father sat behind 20 years ago when he cautioned his son about surviving in the competitive ambulance-building industry.
``It was 1976, and we had just been invited to bid on an ambulance for the city of Norfolk,'' Tommy said. ``He sat right here and told me not to get my hopes up . . . that I would be lucky if I sold two or three over the next year.''
Today, Robinson apparently is one of only a handful of ambulance manufacturers in the country.
``Although there is a company in Ashland that rebuilds ambulances, I'm not aware of another one in the state that builds them,'' said Capt. Mike Berg of the Nansemond-Suffolk Volunteer Rescue Squad. ``I would say there are no more than 40 companies that build ambulances in the United States.''
Makes you wonder what M.H. thinks about all this change and innovation on the part of his sons.
After decades in the truck-building industry, he was reluctant for the company to take its new direction. ``Building ambulances required a lot of experience we didn't have at that time,'' he said in a recent interview. ``But I believe Robinson Body Works has wound up building the best ambulances on the market today.''
On that, Tommy Robinson agrees with his dad. And once he hits the road with the company's aggressive new marketing campaign, he is confident rescue squads up and down the East Coast will agree, too.
``The business is out there,'' he says. ``I just need to go get it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color staff photos by Bill Tiernan
Mike Murphy prepares an ambulance for a changeover in Robinson Body
Works. The Windsor business is hoping to market itself as a
manufacturer of $65,000 ambulances. [color cover photo]
Ryan P. Strange of Portsmouth drills holes for an emergency light on
the side of the ambulance.
Rick Fischer of Windsor attatches a "rub rail" to an ambulance under
construction at Robinson Body Works.
Tommy Robinson, president of Robinson Body Works, sits in an
ambulance ready for delivery to the city of Norfolk.
by CNB