Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 15, 1993 TAG: 9310150108
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
On Thursday, Grove Worldwide Manlift Operation shut its gate, laying off 28 workers.
Grove, which makes hydraulic lifts, blamed the shutdown on a global oversupply of cranes due to the long recession in the construction industry, especially in Europe.
The work done in Salem will be shifted to the company's North American headquarters in Shady Grove, Pa.
"We regret the need to reduce our work force," said Robert C. Stift, chairman of Grove Worldwide. "But at this time it is necessary in order for us to maintain our global competitiveness."
Grove closed by quietly packing up and sending its workers home, a stark contrast to the hoopla surrounding its February 1990 opening with the announcement that it could within three years employ 800 to 1,000 people.
Salem Mayor Jim Taliaferro had described the 1990 news as the biggest industrial move to the Roanoke Valley since General Electric Co. set up shop in 1955.
Gov. Douglas Wilder, at a display set up at the Salem Civic Center news conference, hopped on one of Grove's platforms and called the company's opening the "first major economic development of my administration."
But by 3:30 p.m. Thursday, the front gate at Grove's Cook Avenue plant was locked, its parking lot nearly empty and a lone security guard said only that the workers had been "released" that morning.
Grove leased the 164,000-square-foot warehouse and office complex off Lee Highway from Hart-Salem Associates, a company formed by Grove's real estate firm. Until 1988, those buildings were used by Sav-A-Stop Inc., a Florida distributor of food and household goods that went bankrupt.
Grove is a subsidiary of Hanson Industries Plc., a British conglomerate that makes a broad range of consumer goods, from Farberware cookware to coal mining equipment.
Staff writer Doug Lesmerises contributed to this story.
by CNB