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Quad/Graphics will print
National Geographic
Quad/Graphics won a 15-year contract to print 9 million copies of National Geographic magazine each month at its West Virginia plant.
Harry V. Quadracci, company president and founder, said Quad/Graphics will invest $70 million in its Martinsburg plant and hire an additional 700 employees as a result of winning the contract. Employment will climb to more than 1,500.
The company plans to add an 84,000-square-foot pressroom, bringing square footage at the Martinsburg facility to 1.1 million.
The Martinsburg growth is part of a company-wide $600 million expansion program.
Quad/Graphics came to West Virginia in June 1997, when the company officially opened its Martinsburg plant in the Berkeley County Industrial Park at Cumbo Yard. A sister company, PARCEL/DIRECT, joined Quad/Graphics in the industrial park in May 1999.
InfoCision Corp. begins
construction in Huntington
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined InfoCision Management Corp. and state and local officials in breaking ground for a new $1.2 million facility in Cabell County.
The company originally opened a Huntington office in September 1998. The new facility will contain 150 fully automated call center stations.
Established in 1982, Akron, Ohio-based InfoCision is a leader in outbound and inbound telephone marketing for nonprofit organizations and Fortune 1000 companies.
In Clarksburg, W.Va., InfoCision celebrated its one-year anniversary with the announcement of plans to add 100 jobs to its 300-person work force. InfoCision operates 14 call centers at six locations in Ohio and West Virginia and employs nearly 2,000 people.
Orgill opens $20 million
distribution center
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined Orgill Inc. President William M. Fondren Jr. and state and local officials for the grand opening of the company’s $20 million Northeast Region distribution center in Berkeley County.
Headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Orgill markets a majority of its hardware products to independent hardware stores, home centers and lumber yards.
The Martinsburg facility will employ as many as 200 workers and provide an annual payroll in excess of $7 million. The 500,000-square-foot facility is the company’s largest and complements three other facilities in Memphis, Tifton, Ga., and Vandalia, Ill., in supplying Orgill’s 4,000-plus customers.
Orgill recorded annual sales of $552 million last year. The company employs more than 1,400 people and serves customers in more than 50 countries in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
Verizon announces
150 new technical jobs
Verizon, formerly known as Bell Atlantic, announced the addition of 150 technical jobs in Huntington.
Employees will provide repair services to companies in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia that buy the company’s services wholesale and repackage them for retail sale.
Verizon also will help form a new statewide information technology consortium to focus on training workers in telecommunications and software development and support. Among the consortium’s goals is attracting high-tech companies to West Virginia.
PAZ-PET program
graduates first class
Twenty-four people graduated from the first class of the Polymer Alliance Zone’s Pre-Employment Training program.
Graduates completed 120 hours of classroom instruction covering subjects such as human resources, safety, teamwork, technology, quality and introduction to polymers.
All courses were developed and taught by the following member companies of the Polymer Alliance Zone: Concepts West, GE Plastics, M & G Polymers, Ravenswood Polymers, SDR Plastics, Star Plastics and West Virginia Polymer Corp.
PAZ-PET creates and maintains a pool of skilled, knowledgeable workers through a pre-employment training process that meets and/or exceeds the work force needs and expectations of Polymer Alliance Zone (PAZ) member companies in the Mid-Ohio Valley region.
Two new companies locate
in Polymer Alliance Zone
West Virginia’s high-quality work force and Jackson County’s access to the highest concentration of polymer companies in the world drew two companies to the Polymer Alliance Zone (PAZ), bringing 100 jobs.
ENE of West Virginia will manufacture plastic bags for retailers and grocery chains including Food Lion and Dollar General Stores. The Jackson County facility will establish an East Coast presence for ENE’s parent company, California-based ENE Plastics Inc.
Commercial Plastics of West Virginia purchases waste plastic from two major PAZ manufacturers, GE Plastics in Wood County and M&G Polymers Inc. (formerly Shell Chemical) in Mason County, and recycles and reprocesses it for sale to other manufacturers.
The two projects account for an investment of more than $3 million in Jackson County. Established by an executive order nearly four years ago, PAZ is a public-private partnership among education, government and polymer industry leaders in Jackson, Mason and Wood counties.
Optics company announces
jobs in Marion County
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood and officials from Molecular OptoElectronics Corp. (MOEC) announced the company will open a manufacturing facility in Marion County and plans to create 100 jobs by the end of the year.
Established in 1993, MOEC’s products – variable optical attenuators, optical power control modules and optical amplifiers – use the latest technology to harness the power of light to transmit data and multimedia services. The company and its employees own more than 20 U.S. and international patents protecting company inventions.
MOEC is the latest technology-driven company to discover the many business advantages of the I-79 High Technology Corridor. MOEC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin R. Stewart is a 1976 graduate of West Virginia University.
Pratt & Whitney Engine Services Inc.
announces new hangar
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined Pratt & Whitney Engine Services Inc. and state and local officials in announcing plans for construction of a new hangar at Benedum Airport that will significantly upgrade the company’s fly-in jet engine and repair service capabilities.
Pratt & Whitney Engine Services Inc. is a subsidiary of Pratt & Whitney Canada, a world leader in the production of gas turbine engines. The $2 million, 17,000-square-foot facility will more than triple current hangar space at Pratt & Whitney’s facility in the Mid-Atlantic Aerospace Complex.
Set for completion before the end of the year, the Benedum hangar expansion project represents the fourth major expansion in the 29-year history of Pratt & Whitney’s Bridgeport facility.
Jefferson County company
announces expansion
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined Impreso.com Inc. and state and local officials to celebrate the completion of an expansion project at TST/Impreso Inc.’s Jefferson County manufacturing facility.
TST/Impreso Inc. converts paper into business-use formats such as stock business forms, thermal facsimile paper, copy paper, ink jet paper, film products, fine business stationery, adding machine rolls and large rolls for laser printers.
The $1 million project added 50,000 square feet of storage and warehouse space for the paper and film products produced at the Kearneysville facility.
Texas-based Impreso.com Inc., parent company of TST/Impreso Inc., recorded annual sales of $59 million in 1999. The company also operates HotSheet.com, a web directory with links to more than 500 premier websites, through its subsidiary HotSheet.com Inc.
Manufacturer brings jobs
to Clay County
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined officials of Filcon, Inc., for the grand opening of Filcon’s new production facility in Clay County.
Filcon, a manufacturer of quality filtration products, expects to hire 15 to 20 people immediately, anticipating a need for as many as 300 employees and a new facility within a few years.
Rubber mat finishing plant
to open in Princeton
Crossville Rubber, Inc., of Crossville, Tenn., announced 50 new jobs in Princeton with the opening of a plant that will put the finishing touches on rubber mats for tractor trailers.
Cable firm to build
facility in Scott Depot
Charter Communications, the nation’s fourth-largest cable television company, plans a $2 million, 75-employee regional office in Scott Depot.
West Virginia’s 200,000 Charter customers represent the company’s highest concentration in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Manufacturer opens
Raleigh County facility
Gov. Cecil H. Underwood joined officials from Klöckner-Pentaplast of America, Inc., to dedicate a $6 million, 54,000-square-foot facility.
Headquartered in Gordonsville, Va., the company will manufacture rigid plastic films used in packaging and printing/specialty applications from its new location at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport Industrial Park.
State education spending
outranks 46 other states
The U.S. Census Bureau reports West Virginia spent $54.35 per $1,000 of personal income on education in 1997, trailing only Alaska ($71.58), Wyoming ($57.77) and Vermont ($54.71).
Tyler County chemical firm
announces expansion
CK Witco, a Tyler County chemical manufacturer, announced plans for a $30 million expansion. The project will develop a process called Direct TMS, a building block for the production of silanes, utilizing advanced technology and process control.
Multimillion-dollar upgrade
planned for polyester plant
Gruppo Mossi & Ghisolfi, the company that acquired Shell Chemical’s polyester plant in Point Pleasant, announced plans for a $35 million upgrade.
Canadian company locates
in Raleigh County
Sachin West Virginia Inc., with headquarters in Kitchener, Ontario, will procure and distribute mining equipment from its new location in Beckley.
West Virginia hospital
one of nation's 100 best
“100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success” includes St. Mary’s Hospital in Huntington.
HCIA-Sachs Institute conducted the study, which identifies industry benchmarks by recognizing hospitals and their management teams that demonstrate superior clinical, operational and financial performance.
Officials from Japanese
companies tour W.Va. firms
Officials from five Japanese wood products companies toured West Virginia, visiting sawmills, dry kilns and furniture parts plants in search of products ready for import.
The West Virginia Development Office’s Nagoya trade office organized the weeklong “West Virginia Hardwood Industry Orientation.”
W.Va. companies attend
Japan technology trade mission
Six West Virginia technology companies participated in the third annual Virtual Reality & Multimedia Messe (exposition) in Ogaki City, Japan.
The theme for this year’s conference was “Next Generation Business Pioneered by Digital Networks.” More than 1,000 Japanese and Pacific Rim companies attended the event.
Participating West Virginia companies were TMC Technologies, Inc.; MPL, Inc.; HGO, Inc.; Business Development; Strictly Business, Inc., and ProLogic, Inc.
The Governor’s Office of Technology also had a booth at the event and worked with Ken Crockett, the director of the West Virginia Japan Office, to promote the state as a prime location for Japanese technology businesses to enter the North American market.
McDowell site considered
for federal project
The West Virginia Development Office is assisting in the development of the Indian Ridge Industrial Park in McDowell County, a 300-acre site under consideration for a $100 million federal correctional facility. The federal project would create as many as 400 jobs with an estimated annual payroll of $125 million.
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