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Altec makes room for new crane product line at Daleville, Va., operation

Published in: The Roanoke Times
Date: 10/27/2004
By: Joanne Poindexter

Oct. 27--FINCASTLE, Va. -- Altec Industries, a Birmingham, Ala.-based manufacturer, is expanding its operations at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield in Daleville.

The company, which makes, sells and rents mobile lifts, digging equipment and cable-handling equipment, will be adding a new product line of truck-mounted cranes, said Tom Richmond, director of manufacturing. The expansion not only increases Altec's investment in Botetourt County to $14 million within the next year, but it also will generate about $36,000 in additional local tax revenues, said County Administrator Jerry Burgess.

It "reaffirms our commitment to being here ... to being a part of the community," Richmond told the Botetourt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

Richmond also said the company is hiring welders, mechanics and electrical assembly workers and individuals with technical and engineering backgrounds.

Applications for the jobs, which pay more than $11 an hour, are being accepted by the Virginia Employment Commission.

Altec is the only company in the county that hasn't yet met investment and employee goals stipulated in incentive agreements, Burgess said. But citing the 9/11 crisis, he asked the supervisors to give the company another year to reach its goals.

Burgess said the company has about 100 employees, 50 short of the original target to receive county incentives, but the new product line could put Altec over its goal.

The company "has become a very strong community participant," Burgess said.

In support of extending the target deadline, Supervisor Terry Austin, who represents the Buchanan district, said Altec has "created the type of jobs we feel are needed -- technical and blue-collar."

In August 2000, Altec received more than $1.2 million in business incentives to open its Virginia facility in Botetourt County. The company said it would hire 150 employees -- engineers, welders, electricians, mechanical technicians and others with mechanical skills -- and invest $12.5 million at its nearly 100,000-square-foot Botetourt manufacturing and assembling plant by November 2004.

If the company doesn't hit the target by November 2005, it could be financially penalized, Burgess said.

Altec, a German company founded in 1929, has sales and manufacturing facilities worldwide.

It is one of two manufacturers in the Greenfield complex. In August, county officials announced that the other company, Koyo Steering Systems of USA, exceeded its investment and employee targets and the supervisors released the Japanese auto parts maker from its incentive contract.

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