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byline: Joan Tupponce

A good fit

The British company Unison Ltd. saw the creation of a U.S. manufacturing plant as part of its evolution. Putting that plant in the Danville area was a “no brainer,” says Julian Kidger, Unison’s joint managing director.

Founded in Scarborough, England, 44 years ago, Unison makes pipe-bending and automation machinery used in aerospace, automotive, marine, military, oil and gas and general engineering applications. It also writes software for machine control and advanced simulation of new part designs for customers.

Unison has sold machines in U.S. markets for more than a decade through agents. It opened its first direct-sales office for North America in North Carolina in September 2015. The next step was to establish a U.S. factory.

“Fifty to 70 percent of our sales are in the U.S. market,” says Kidger. “We are primarily growing in the U.S. Business there has been good to us.”

Unison began its search for a manufacturing location during the first quarter of last year, looking first at possible sites in North and South Carolina. The Danville Office of Economic Development made contact with the company during that time through some lead-generating consultants.

“We made two trips to their manufacturing facility in Scarborough, and they came here,” says Telly Tucker, Danville’s director of economic development. Danville and Pittsylvania County worked together on the project.
Unison appreciated the Danville region’s “very robust and professional approach — their commitment, financial support and the people we met,” says Kidger. “No other state came close regarding the whole package.”

The company felt the Danville area was ideal because of its central location on the East Coast. “We do installations north and south,” Kidger says, noting the majority of its customers are within a day’s drive of the area.

“It all made sense. What pushed things over was the team we met in Danville.”

One selling point that helped sway Unison was the Danville region’s investment in workforce training, most notably metalworking and precision manufacturing. “We have invested more than $30 million in workforce training in the last five to seven years,” Tucker says.

Unison has a history of participating in the development of future generations of engineers and scientists through the Advanced Manufacturing and Research Centre in Sheffield, England, and its own technology-based University Technical College in Scarborough, which will graduate its first students this year.

“Danville and Pittsylvania County’s desire to build their own advanced manufacturing skill sets was obvious to us,” Kidger says. “They were investing in their own technology education courses with skills we would require. We were impressed by what they achieved.”

The company will create its own training school in its Virginia facility. “We want to have an embedded educational facility to train tube bending from the novice through expert,” Kidger says, noting the company will partner with Troy Simpson, associate professor of precision machining technology at Danville Community College. “The school will be for use by DCC students and also our customers. We believe it to be the first school of its kind,” Kidger says.

Unison now is conducting its first round of hiring in Virginia. It has already moved into its 40,000-square-foot building in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park, jointly owned by the City of Danville and Pittsylvania County.

“We will begin by growing our sales, marketing and service with a total headcount of 10 by the end of year one and then will phase in assembly and manufacturing of our machines over the next two years,” Kidger says.

“We intend to employ 35 people by the end of year three and 55 by the end of year five.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Danville, Pittsylvania County and Southern Virginia Regional Alliance to secure the Unison project, which represented a total investment of $5.2 million. The Dan River Region also received a $105,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist with the deal.

In addition, the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $330,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds. Unison is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program as well as funding and services to support its employee training activities through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

The Unison project is ideal for the region, says Tucker. “It supports and validates many of the investments we have made.”

West Coast company establishing operation in the Valley

TruckVault, a West Coast company, liked what it found in Shenandoah County when it was searching last year for an East Coast manufacturing and assembly site.

The company’s decision to locate in the Mount Jackson Industrial Park and invest $1.5 million in its new operation is expected to create 60 jobs in the next few years.

Since 1995, TruckVault, which is based in Washington state, has made secure storage compartments for equipment kept in vehicles ranging from sedans to pickups.

The company compares its manufacturing process to cabinet making, says Jenna French, Shenandoah County director of tourism and economic development.

Before talking to local economic development officials, the company “had scouted out some properties that could have worked for them. Going off that information we sought out additional properties,” says Courtland Robinson, business development director for the Shenandoah Valley Partnership.

The company also looked at possible sites in Kentucky. It chose Mount Jackson because of its access to major transportation arteries. “They liked the location along Interstate 81,” Robinson says. “Being on I-81 offers a host of advantages.”

The area also is accessible to Interstates 66 and 64, the Capital Beltway and Washington, D.C.

TruckVault will be moving into the One Stop Deli building, which was previously used for food processing and preparation. The existing cold storage units will be removed during renovation. TruckVault plans to use 14,664 square feet of the more than 18,000-square-foot building for manufacturing.

“It’s hard to find an up-to-date building in today’s market. They saw that as an opportunity to invest,” Robinson says.

In addition to interstate access, the company cited other factors that drew it to the region. One was Virginia’s business friendly environment “and ability and eagerness to provide assistance to a company like that from start to finish,” Robinson says.

TruckVault is a natural fit, he adds. “We have a lot of similar industries in the area that employ similar workers. They would be able to find their workforce in or around Shenandoah County by being able to pull from Harrisonburg, Rockingham, Staunton and Waynesboro.”

Being part of a community also played into the company’s decision. “They are down-to-earth folks, and they are excited to call Shenandoah Valley home,” French says.

New leader takes the helm at Danville Pittsylvania chamber

Alexis Ehrhardt began this year with a new title and a new career focus as CEO and president of the Danville Pittsylvani­a  County Chamber of Commerce.

Ehrhardt had worked with the chamber in her previous position as executive director of the Center for Community Engagement and Career Competitiveness at Averett University. 

Heading the chamber is an opportunity for her to “do similar work in terms of thinking about talent development at a regional scale,” she says.

Ehrhardt grew up in Rockville, Md. In 2000, she moved to Pittsylvania County where she initially worked as director of admissions at Chatham Hall, a private girls’ boarding school. “I moved here right out of college and fell in love with Chatham,” she says. Ehrhardt later worked for Danville Community College before moving to Averett.

Much of her work in higher education was focused on strategic planning and team recruitment. “I also worked with community engagement,” she says. “It helps that I know most of the stakeholders and because I’ve built relationships we can pick up where we left off.”

The chamber board began its search for a new CEO in September. “My final interview was just after Thanksgiving,” says Ehrhardt.

In her first year, she plans to get acquainted with the chamber’s 650 members and learn how “we can work across all aspects of our community to help them reach their goals … I want to let the membership drive the goals.”

She predicts that the chamber’s high priorities will include talent development and assistance to small businesses. “The talent development piece is crucial,” she says. “How can we support our schools so they can produce the graduates we need for our workforce?”

Ehrhardt wants to come up with a long-term approach for providing opportunities for young people. “It all goes back to education and talent,” she says. “We have great relationships with the superintendents in the school system. We want to find out what we can provide to their schools, starting with early childhood and continuing through workforce development.”

Manufacturer expects to create more than 400 jobs in Bristol

Bristol took a big hit in 2016 when Ball Corp. closed its 260,000-square-foot beverage packaging plant, eliminating 230 jobs. That facility, however, now has a new owner who plans to create 405 manufacturing jobs.

“We are getting back what we lost,” says Bart Poe, executive director of the Bristol Virginia Industrial Development Authority who also is the city’s interim director of economic development. “This was a great shot in the arm for us. We needed this.”

The Bristol plant now is owned by American Merchant, a newly formed company that is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Merchant House International Ltd. Merchant House makes home textiles, seasonal décor products and leather shoes.

American Merchant is investing $19.9 million to convert the plant for the production of embroidered hand and bath towels.

Until 1998, the plant was owned by Richmond-based Reynolds Metals Co. “Reynolds did a great job when they were here,” Poe says. “They patented a lid that they made for the tops of cans.”

Before Ball left Bristol in 2016, the company spent six months conducting repairs and maintenance on the facility. “When we started showing the property, it was pristine,” Poe says. “The company did a fantastic job. They did the groundwork, making it easier for us to market the building.”

American Merchant’s equipment should start arriving in March. “They are estimating six to eight months for the upfit to be ready for production,” Poe says.

The company is ready to start hiring and training employees. “We’ve not had textiles in Bristol for a while, and we’re looking forward to this,” Poe says.

During the site selection process, Bristol competed with sites in Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Rhode Island and South Carolina. Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $300,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s  Opportunity Fund to assist the city with the project. The Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission also approved $590,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity funds.

American Merchant also is eligible to receive additional grants and state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program and Appalachian Regional Commission, both administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development.

“American Merchant was pleased with what we could do and what we had available,” Poe says. “When we get something like this we go all out to make sure we get the business. It’s nice to have what a prospect needs and bring it home.” 

High-growth trajectory

Tim Kelly describes Macedon Technologies as an “employee-centric company.” The Reston-based IT software firm hires job applicants who want to “be more than a coder that sits in a dark room and works with specifications,” says Kelly, Macedon’s vice president of professional services and operations. “They have the opportunity to work directly with clients” in developing solutions for their needs.”

Austin Rosenfeld founded the business in 2009. Using the Appian platform, Macedon services range from architecture and analysis to design implementation and deployment.

Macedon writes software for a variety of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, finance, education, energy and entertainment. Its customers are spread across the U.S. and Canada.

During the past eight years, Macedon has grown from one employee to 90 employees. “We will be roughly around 130 employees by the end of the summer,” Kelly says. “Every 18 months we have outgrown our facility.”

The company moved recently into a new 25,000-square-foot facility that, based on its current growth trajectory, it will outgrow in a year and half, Kelly says. “We continue to grow headcount and client base while maintaining our unique culture.”

The company experiences consistent year-over-year growth. In 2014, it was the 842nd fastest-growing company in the country on the Inc. 5000 list. “We have more than doubled in size since then,” Kelly says, noting the firm is preparing to open an office in Austin, Texas, where it has a strong concentration of work.

Macedon recruits from the top U.S. universities but makes offers to less than 1 percent of job candidates interviewed. “We want to ensure that people coming in will not only technically be able to do what we do but will also fit into our culture,” Kelly says.

In addition to recruiting for strong technical abilities, Macedon also looks for people who have a good understanding of how the world “works outside of being a programmer,” Kelly says. “Are they good human beings? Are they someone we want to work with? Are they someone we can trust will add to the culture we have here?”

The company rewards employees based on their demonstrated ability and accomplishments. “As a result, people’s careers tend to be accelerated,” Kelly says.

New employees joining the company are offered corporate housing for their first month. Since most are not Northern Virginia residents, the idea of finding a place to live in an unknown area can be daunting. “Corporate housing allows them the opportunity to assimilate to the area and to decide where they want to live and with whom they wish to live,” Kelly says. “We want to make their life easy and the transition easy.”

About a month before starting with the company, each employee is assigned a Macedon buddy who serves as a resource. “The buddies are similar in title but with enough experience as to how the company works to help new employees in their transition to Macedon,” Kelly says. “It provides a level of comfort — someone to help you out but they are not your boss.”

Employees receive a comprehensive benefits package and are eligible for various monthly and yearly bonus programs. The company pays 100 percent of health-care insurance premiums for each employee.

Macedon also holds a variety of corporate events that range from baseball games to charity fundraisers. “Every year we throw an over-the-top family and friends picnic,” Kelly says. “We will hold our fourth annual picnic this June.”

Each month Macedon also hosts a company-wide meeting where Rosenfeld talks about “where the company is going and what we are doing. That’s when we celebrate promotions and work anniversaries,” Kelly says.  

No tears in their beer

Chesbay Distributing’s business is beer. That is apparent in one of the company’s employee events, a craft-beer competition.

In addition to brewing beer, teams from company departments develop marketing plans and labeling systems. “Then they are judged and a trophy is awarded to the winner,” says Kathrine Wylie, the company’s marketing manager.  “All of our departments are represented [in the contest]. It’s turning into something fun.”

The contest is just one way that the Chesapeake-based wholesale beer distributor connects with its employees and maintains morale.

Chesbay officials say the company appeals to jobseekers because of the opportunities it offers.

“In the last year or so we have attracted a lot of employees from competitors,” says Jerry Fortner, Chesbay’s director of human resources. “We are known in the area as having the strongest compensation package and raises for sales, delivery and warehouse employees [among] beverage distribution companies.”

Delivery drivers are paid in the upper $50,000 range while merchandisers and warehouse workers make $16 an hour.

Chesbay traces its roots to Norfolk Beverage, which was founded in the mid-1980s. The name was changed in 2000 to reflect the company’s growing footprint. “We felt like Norfolk Beverage was too narrow,” Fortner says.

The company’s territory grew outside the Chesapeake area three years ago when it acquired Kozak Beverages, a Miller beer distributor based in Petersburg. Chesbay’s  territory now stretches north to Petersburg, west to Amelia County and south to North Carolina.

The company distributed Miller beer until 1999 when it added a Coors portfolio. In 2012 it joined Reyes Holdings, a family-owned conglomerate of beer distributors representing import, craft and domestic beers.

Today, Chesbay distributes around 35 beers, ranging from Miller to Virginia craft beers such as Hardywood, Ardent and Lickinghole Creek.

The company sells  just over 7 million cases of beer a year. “Beer is a good business to be in because it’s pretty much recession proof,” Fortner says.

The company now has around 170 employees. None is pigeonholed in one job or one segment of the business, Fortner says. Employees can move from one department to another during their careers. “We work hard on employee engagement,” Fortner says. “We want people to develop and grow as promotions become available.”

The company’s management, including company President Patrick Collins, maintains an open-door policy in listening to employees’ concerns. “We have a hotline number that employees can call if they feel an issue has not been addressed properly,” Fortner says.

Chesbay organizes a variety of employee activities such as Family Fun Day. The event includes carnival rides, music, food, a beer garden and door prizes. “Last year we topped out at about 450 people,” says Wylie.

In addition, the company holds an annual awards banquet to recognize top performers in each department, awarding them $1,000 each.

In 2013 Chesbay started its “Hunger Action Month Initiative” during which it conducts a food drive at its warehouse to support the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia. “Every department gets involved, and this year we competed internally, our sales department versus our operations department. We were able to collect and donate 5,205 pounds of food and necessities,” Wylie says. “This is double what we collected in 2016.”

Chesbay is always looking for ways to retain employees, company officials say. “Warehouse, merchandising and delivery jobs are tough, physical jobs,” Fortner says, noting that a yearly attrition rate of 15 percent is typical in the industry.  “We think we have done a good job of hedging our turnover.” 

Business leaders push for Amtrak to add stop in Bedford

Business groups and other organizations are trying to persuade the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to establish a small passenger rail stop in the town of Bedford. 
Bedford sits almost halfway between the Lynchburg and Roanoke stations. Passenger rail returned to Roanoke on Oct. 31 after a 38-year hiatus.

“The stop would have an impact on the general community in terms of growth, business development and tourism,” says Susan Martin, president and CEO of the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce. “It will help residents travel outside the area, and it will bring folks into the area.”

The Bedford area is home to a variety of tourist destinations such as Smith Mountain Lake, Peaks of Otter Lodge and the National D-Day Memorial. “Where you stop would be almost exactly 18 miles to Smith Mountain Lake,” says Vicki Gardner, executive director of Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The rail stop is expected to help attract retirees from the Northeast as well as families that want to live and work in the area. “We are rich in advanced manufacturing,” says Martin. “We have a great quality of life here that we can offer to a good, skilled workforce.”

Local proponents of Amtrak service also say people living in the area would have rail access to Washington, D.C. and New York, connecting them to larger airports for national and international travel. “We believe the stop could also attract people working in D.C. that would want to live here,” Martin says.

Backers also believe little additional infrastructure work will be needed to accommodate the station. “The key component is building a platform, cover and kiosk,” says Gardner. “We feel it makes great sense. It truly is economic development at its best.”

Before the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation makes a decision, it wants to take a minimum of two years to look at ridership numbers from the Roanoke station. “Then they will make the ultimate decision when and where new stops are added,” says Martin. 

Architecture firm focuses on small cities and towns

Bill and Kathy Frazier have worked on nearly 3,000 projects Virginia since they started Staunton-based Frazier Associates in 1986. The husband-and-wife architecture firm specializes in downtown revitalization, adaptive reuse, historic preservation, urban infill, community planning, wayfinding, corridor planning and residential design.

Frazier Associates was the recent recipient of the T. David Fitz-Gibbon Virginia Architecture Firm Award, the highest honor bestowed by the professional organization AIA Virginia. “One of the reasons we got the award was because we have focused our work on small cities and towns,” says Bill. “That type of work was a neglected section of the practice of architecture. We were out there on our own doing a lot of work in these smaller areas around the state.”

The firm’s projects have included all communities involved in the Virginia Main Street Program, an affiliate of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center.

“We have been fortunate to work with the Main Street Program since we have been in business,” says Kathy, noting the program represents just a small-but-important portion of the firm’s business. “We like helping those small communities. We provide the design assistance as well as workshops on designs for communities statewide.”

The Main Street Program centers on economic development in the context of historic preservation. “It’s a whole sense of place. It makes people proud,” Kathy says. “It’s really trending now with remote working. People find it attractive to live in these small downtowns because they are walkable. Downtowns are being reborn through the Main Street approach.”

Most of the firm’s historic rehabilitation work is in the Shenandoah Valley. In addition, it has drafted more than 50 sets of design guidelines and pattern books for historic downtowns and rural villages throughout the Southeast. “We have worked in 20 states, including Virginia,” Bill says.

The firm currently is working on several Main Street projects as well as a number of residential projects. “We do new houses as well as historic houses and rural buildings,” Kathy says. “We’ve done a number of historic barns.”

One of the firm’s larger projects was the recent rehab of the Harrisonburg Ice House, which houses a brewery, a restaurant, apartments and other businesses. “We are wrapping up another building in Harrisonburg, the Keezell building, that is more classically designed and will have downtown apartments,” says Bill. “A lot of our projects are adaptive reuse like this.” 

Program will allow students to attend college for free

In the two weeks after it was announced in November, more than 150 high school seniors rushed to sign up for the first tuition free community college program in Virginia.   

The Harvest Student Excellence in Education (SEED) initiative, funded by a three-year grant totaling $3.1 million from the Harvest Foundation in Martinsville, makes the first two years of college at Patrick Henry Community College free of charge for all qualifying spring 2018 high school graduates in Martinsville and Henry County. It also is open to graduates of GED and recognized homeschool programs. An estimated 250 students will have the opportunity to take advantage of the program in its first year.

“Our strategic goal is to encourage economic growth in Martinsville-Henry County and to meet workforce needs of area businesses,” says Allyson Rothrock, the president of The Harvest Foundation.

“We are committed to supporting programs and initiatives that increase the number of individuals with the skills, means and resources to enter the Martinsville-Henry County workforce,” she says. “Patrick Henry Community College has been a strong partner since our inception in 2002.”

Students must enroll at the community college the first semester after graduating from high school. They must have a grade point average of 2.5 and maintain a 2.0 GPA upon enrollment. Students are required to register for a minimum of 15 credit hours per semester. They have up to two-and-a-half years to complete their degree or certificate.

The initiative is modeled after the Tennessee Promise, which provides two years of tuition-free attendance at community and technical colleges in that state.  “New York City and Los Angeles have similar programs as does Rhode Island. We are the first in Virginia,” says Greg Hodges, Patrick Henry’s vice president of academics and student success services.

He believes a significant number of students will take advantage of the program. They include students who can’t afford college because of financial barriers as well as college-bound students who want to get their first two years at Patrick Henry free and then transfer to a four-year college.

As tuition continues to rise, many middle-income families are finding it more difficult to pay for their children’s college education. “They make too much money to qualify for financial aid, but the students can’t afford college,” Hodges says. “We have no idea how many students can use the initiative, but we know it will help every one of them.” 

Authority allows localities to collaborate on projects

After two years of research and preparation, the new Lonesome Pine Regional Industrial Facility Authority is approved and ready to go. It will be making its debut this quarter. The new authority, similar to the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority, will benefit the economic projects of its members — Lee, Wise, Scott and Dickenson counties and the city of Norton.

“This will be the first regional industrial facility authority [RIFA] to be created in far Southwest Virginia,” says Duane Miller, executive director of the Lenowisco Planning District Commission, which represents all of the RIFA members except Dickenson County.

A RIFA, which operates under the guidelines set by the Code of Virginia, allows multiple counties and municipalities to work together as a region. It supports revenue sharing and serves as a mechanism for sharing resources.

“We thought by forming the RIFA it would allow for partner resources on certain projects to make our region more competitive,” Miller says. “It will also complement other regional initiatives.”

RIFAs are beneficial because they give member counties and municipalities the opportunity to pick and choose the projects they want to participate in. “We didn’t want to create an organization that made the members put funds toward all of the projects, rather just the specific projects they choose that would be a benefit to their region or county,” Miller says.

For example, any member of the authority that needs capital or funding for a project can go to the authority to ask whether any other members want to participate. The actual project may not be in the county that has agreed to help with funding “but by participating in it, there will be a payoff,” Miller says. “Employment opportunities would be available to all counties as would revenue sharing.”

The authority had its first organizational meeting in December. It will start looking at potential projects during the first quarter of 2018. Miller doesn’t anticipate staffing the authority for the first few years. “If we have a lot of growth and it becomes a revenue generator, then we will talk about staffing,” he says. “If you hear we are staffing, then things are good.”