ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 24, 1996 TAG: 9608260029
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
Rubatex Corp. said the financial health of its Bedford plant improved this spring, but losses of its parent company - RBX Corp. of Roanoke County - nearly doubled, growing to $3.8 million for the first half of this year.
The figures, however, are a positive sign for Bedford's largest employer, whose owners in July aborted a plan to shut down part of the factory to address production and labor problems. The plant, which employs 875 people and pays them an average wage of $11.50, instead embarked on a plan to upgrade equipment that received worker support. The company launched a $6-million upgrade of the Bedford facility on Aug.15.
Indicators of the plant's improved performance were contained in a report filed this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although RBX is a private company, it discloses its financial results because it sold bonds to the public in May.
The report shows that in the months leading up to this summer's labor conflict with the United Steelworkers, the plant's poor marks were actually beginning to improve.
The report covers Rubatex, which calls itself the national's largest maker of closed-cell foam rubber for consumer and industrial goods and which operates plants in Bedford, Arkansas and North Carolina, and five other rubber and plastic manufacturing and service companies that make up RBX. One of them is Groendyk Manufacturing Co. Inc. of Buchanan, which produces silicon products used for insulation.
An indicator of financial recovery at the Rubatex plant was its 7.8 percent increase in sales during the April-June quarter, over the previous three months.
RBX said it lost $1.76 million on sales of $70.6 million during the second quarter. By comparison, it earned $2.6 million on sales of $70 million in the same quarter last year. Losses in the recent quarter were blamed on problems at the Bedford plant and reduced rubber demand.
Company officials have said it will take money, training and employee cooperation over several years to bring performance in Bedford to optimum levels.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB