Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994                   TAG: 9401240262
SECTION: ECONOMY                    PAGE: EC-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FOR 1 COMPANY, ROANOKE WORKERS HAD THE RIGHT STUFF

When Dennis Barker graduated from high school, he went straight to work for Grumman Emergency Products.

He spent 20 years at the Roanoke operation, eventually getting promoted to a supervisory position.

Then in July 1992, the plant - which manufactured fire engines - shut down, adding its 270 employees to the local unemployment lines.

"It was the only job I ever had," Barker said.

A year and a half later, Barker landed a new job, one that seems to promise stability.

He was among the first to get one of the 75 jobs that opened last month as Service America Corp. established a vending machine refurbishment center at its Roanoke Valley plant, a 52,000-square-foot building on Rockland Avenue.

"I feel really fortunate that I was selected - that I got a job," Barker said.

Service America is best known as the privately owned operator of in-house food and dining service. The Stamford, Conn.-based company, which provides service in 42 states, selected Roanoke in part because of the area's labor pool, said Tony Sartini, a company official.

Since firms such as Grumman and Gardner-Denver have shut their local operations, there is a plentiful supply of mechanically inclined people looking for work in the area.

"They looked at Raleigh first," Sartini said, but found the labor pool to be too oriented toward high-tech industry.

In the past, when one of Service America's 75,000 vending machines needed service, local service mechanics were called.

Service America concluded it might be cheaper to load the broken vending machines on flatbed trucks and take them to company-operated service centers.

Service America management is careful to define this service as "refurbishment" rather than "repair."

Machines brought to the Roanoke service center will be overhauled and get new facades.

Wes Lendy, the district manager running the new operation, likened the process to what the aviation industry does.

"If they just `repaired' airplanes when needed, they'd probably only last eight years or so," he said. "But once a year they're brought in for a complete overhaul."

Because of that, he said, airplanes now operate for decades.

Service America is in its initial phase of hiring and training for the new Roanoke operation. Twenty-five of the 75 jobs have been filled.

Dennis Barker feels doubly blessed.

"I got one of the supervisory positions," he said.

Once the vending machine refurbishing center is operating, the company hopes to service 100 machines a week, with an 18-wheeler moving in and out of Roanoke every day.

\ SERVICE AMERICA CORP.\ A FRESH START\ \ The company: Service America Corp. - best known as the privately owned operator of in-house food and dining services - has food-service or vending operations in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada.

\ Headquarters: Stamford, Conn.

\ Roanoke Valley operations: The company has a number of catering and workplace food service contracts around the region. Last November, Service America announced it would establish a new vending machine refurbishing center to service the company's 75,000 vending machines at its 52,000-square-foot location on Rockland Avenue in Roanoke. Service America's new operation is expected to create 75 jobs in the Roanoke Valley.