ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702030001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT MORGAN SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on Feb. 4 in Current
Correction
The cost of a Christiansburg shell building bought by Ames Textile
Corp., along with land and improvements, was $821,500. The Montgomery
County Board of Supervisors had advanced $362,000 in seed money to start
construction on both this building and a second shell building in
Blacksburg. The shell building was initiated by the Montgomery Regional
Economic Development Commission, whose director is Don Moore. The
information was incorrect in a story in Sunday's Current.
Clothes made the man in Shakespeare's day, but Ames Textile Corp. believes today it is the label that makes the man - or rather makes the man or woman go out and buy.
"Many people buy a Nike or an Adidas shoe because of the label," said Ames' plant manager John Vessey. "If the same shoe had your name or my name on it, would the same number of people buy it?"
Ames is doing big things with small labels.
The family-owned company moved its plant to the Christiansburg Industrial Park in 1989 after a fire in Lowell, Mass., knocked it down - but not out. "We salvaged a lot of the equipment and kept on going. But we decided to move here."
Inside its plant near Interstate 81, more than 5,000 spindles are turning and generating the synthetic yarns from which labels are made. "These days, the average garment has a lot of labels on it - not just one or two," says Vessey.
The company also makes synthetic yarns for seat belts and computer printer ribbons.
Following its move here, the business has exceeded expectations, and has a significant expansion under way.
It opened with 35 workers in Christiansburg in 1989 and is now expanding to 55 or 60.
One of the principal factors that attracted the company to Christiansburg was the existing shell building.
"We wanted to move quickly," said Vessey. "If we had had to start from scratch, the company could very well have located somewhere else."
The 51,200-square-foot building was built on speculation by the Montgomery County Regional Economic Development Commission for $362,000 and sold to Ames for $821,500.
Shell buildings are an important tool in recruiting new industries - and Montgomery County, Blacksburg and Christiansburg jointly committed this year to construct a new shell building in each of the towns.
Blacksburg Town Manager Ron Secrist said that showing a potential new company a shell building is like looking at a new house - "company officials can walk inside the building and actually visualize where they will put their equipment." Economic Development Commission director Ron Moore said 80 percent of relocating companies go to communities that have existing buildings.
Many other considerations were instrumental in bringing Ames to the New River Valley. "We looked in the South," said Vessey. "The company president, Jonathan Stevens, toured many states. This location was good. We would be within one day's distance of many of our customers."
Vessey said there was a real-estate crunch in Massachusetts at the time and the prevailing real estate rates in Christiansburg were a major attraction.
Stevens also mentioned "a good labor supply, competitive wages, reasonable power rates, financing through an industrial revenue bond, - and the warm receptions from county officials, plant managers and economic development executives."
"We need about one year to train an employee," said Vessey. "It is never easy to find good people, but we have been able to find them here." Most of the plant's employees are machine operators on computer-controlled machines.
The company's relations with its employees are very important, said Vessey. It is an "old-fashioned" and "family-oriented" company he said - "very ethical people who treat employees fairly." This philosophy is reflected in Ames' recent ad in a Sunday edition of The Roanoke Times. Under the heading "We Are Expanding Our Business" the ad mentions "our commitment to quality and service" and lists the following employee benefits:
* New higher starting rates
* Frequent first-year pay reviews - 401(k) pension plan
* Paid holidays, life insurance
"We have had a very good response to the ad," says Vessey. The company's logo reading "Ames, since 1865" has a Christmas touch. The design appears at first glance to be a Christmas bell and roll of ribbon - actually it is a spindle and unfurling bolt of fabric.
The company permitted a reporter to tour its plant but will not allow photographs for competitive reasons.
"A spindle can require from six hours to six days to produce," Vessey said, "depending on the weight of the yarn. Most spindles in the plant are producing white yarn, a very few black or orange or some other color.
Ames buys the raw materials - nylon or polyester - from well-known companies such as Dupont and Celanese; produces the synthetic yarns on spindles; sells these to weavers who make the material from which the labels are made; and the material is sold to the garment or other product manufacturers.
The weaving plants that buy Ames' yarns are located in West Virginia, North and South Carolina, "and we have customers in Mexico, although this is outside of our one-day delivery zone," Vessey said. The yarns are delivered in chartered trucks.
While the seat-belt market may be expanding as a customer for the company's yarns, Vessey conceded that the computer-ribbon market is not exactly taking off. These are for dot-matrix printers he said, for which there is still a demand.
Who creates the famous labels that sell the products? Well, said Vessey, they are in general the weavers rather than the manufacturers. The latter develop ideas and computer models, but the weavers do the creative work.
Vessey still has an easy-going British accent, perhaps even a British drawl. He is originally from Derby in central England ("where Rolls-Royce aircraft engines are designed and produced") and was trained in mechanical engineering. He came to New England on vacation and got a job in the textile business with one of Ames' customers in Lawrence, Mass. The Ames executives with whom he came in contact apparently liked the British drawl - they offered him the job in nearby Lowell in 1980.
What can Vessey say about the company's annual sales and profits? "No comment," he said with a good-natured smile. "We don't give out that information." Competitors? "We have several competitors," is all he will say.
Like the spindles inside the plant, these are "military secrets" guarded well by this family company.
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Family-owned Ames Textile Corp. movedby CNBits plant to the Christiansburg Industrial Park in 1989 after a fire
in Lowell, Mass., knocked it down - but not out. color.