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Timber Truss' plant eventually will employ 131 people including production, sales, engineering and office staff. The company is hiring some former employees of General Shale, an Orange County brick company that recently closed.
Timber Truss is a 45-year-old company whose primary manufacturing and sales facility is in Salem. It also has sales and engineering offices in Blacksburg, Lynchburg and Smith Mountain Lake.
Timber Truss Housing Systems Inc. will produce roof and flooring trusses in its new, 74,000-square-foot facility next to Orange County Airport. |
By ROBIN KNEPPER
Timber Truss Housing Systems Inc. has started production of roof and flooring trusses on a 30-acre site next to Orange County Airport.
Development of its new facility brings the 45-year-old company closer to its customers in the Fredericksburg area. It also is providing work for some former employees of General Shale, the Orange brick company that closed in September.
The manufacturing plant started production Nov. 9, but it is operating only at a minimum level, said President Gary Saunders. He said he expects the plant to be fully operational by spring, with 60 to 70 production workers.
When the facility is fully operational it will have 131 employees, including production, sales, engineering and office staff.
Timber Truss has made an $8.5 million investment in land acquisition, site preparation, plant construction and road construction for the 74,000-square-foot facility, said Orange County Administrator Bill Rolfe. An additional 20,000 square feet of space is used for lumber storage.
Timber Truss was founded in 1960 and is owned by W.A. James. Its primary manufacturing and sales facility is located in Salem, and it has sales and engineering offices in Blacksburg, Lynchburg and Smith Mountain Lake.
A fourth office had been located in Charlottesville, but it has been moved to the Orange facility.
For Timber Truss to open another manufacturing facility "is a huge step for our company," Saunders said. The Orange plant, however, will only manufacture trusses. In Salem, the company carries additional products, including cabinets and fixtures, in its showrooms.
"We're fairly successful in southwest Virginia, offering a full package of building supplies," Saunders said. "But we don't want to compete with our customers here."
The majority of Timber Truss customers in this region are building-supply companies.
Timber Truss has been selling in the Fredericksburg market for the last 10 years and has expanded its customer base into Northern Virginia as well.
"Loren [McGarrahan, the company's executive vice president] and I scouted around the Harrisburg, D.C., Charlottesville triangle for another manufacturing site," Saunders said. "The assistance we got from Orange County was very important. When we asked for assistance, they did everything they could to help."
The plant needed a large, flat location that was not available in the county's industrial park. The land next to the airport on State Route 20 was ample, if not entirely level. The company cleared and leveled the land, a process that led to a two-phase archaeological evaluation by the state.
The site did not meet the requirements of a historical site, but primitive arrowheads and tools were found. They will be displayed in the company's reception area.
Although sales of building materials have dipped in the last couple of months, Saunders sees a strong building market in the area.
"Orange and Culpeper counties have been identified by the state as growth areas," he said. "Housing is more affordable in this area and the state calls this area a projected ring of growth. Also, government spending in the D.C. area will assure more housing construction. By having the plant in Orange, we'll be well-situated to supply other areas of the state that were too far from Salem."
The company currently has 25 to 30 people employed in Orange, but the employee numbers "are going up daily," according to Saunders.
Production people will be the first hired, he said, then drivers. Sales and engineering staff are already at work, and two production people have moved up from the Salem location. Seven of the new hires used to work for General Shale.
"We formed a friendship with General Shale," Saunders said. "We thought we might be able to pick up some of the employees they laid off. Although the product is very different, their people are used to working in a production environment."
He said it is likely that Timber Truss will hire more former General Shale employees in the future.
"From the first meeting we had with the folks from Timber Truss," said Ross, "it's been clear that they will be an excellent corporate citizen of Orange County."
To reach ROBIN KNEPPER:
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net
