THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996 TAG: 9609260471
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MYLENE MANGALINDAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 35 lines
Norfolk officials are saluting the arrival of the largest supplier of insignia to the U.S. armed forces.
Vanguard Industries East, a private, family-owned business based in Brooklyn, will move its East Coast operations to Norfolk in October, creating 80 full-time jobs.
It will invest $2 million in a 40,000-square-foot manufacturing and supply center in Norfolk Industrial Park. About 18 managers from the firm's New York City location will move to Norfolk.
The move, which will be completed by June 1997, puts Vanguard within a half day's drive of 65 percent of its business, said Ross F. Hendricks, Vanguard's vice president and chief operating officer.
Bernard Gershen, a Polish immigrant, founded Vanguard in 1918 in New York City. He established a reputation as a quality tailor and textile tradesman who serviced officers and seamen of the merchant marine fleet. His son, Al, continued the business. Grandson William, the firm's current president, expanded the company to include San Diego and Hawaii locations.
Vanguard has 21,000 items in its product line. It is diversifying its products to ribbons, medals, swords and accessories to police, fire departments, yacht clubs, airlines, cruise lines, merchant marines and schools.
The firm's Norfolk facility will be located in an enterprise zone and it will receive work-force training services from the Virginia Department of Business Assistance.
Revenue for both divisions - Vanguard Industries East and Vanguard Industries West, the California-based distributor to the western states - ranges between $16 million to $20 million annually. by CNB