Monogram to Add 150 Jobs

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Martinsville Bulletin

Monogram Food Solutions LLC will create 150 jobs at its Henry County plant, most of them by the end of this year, to bring its total number of employees to about 400, officials announced Friday.

Monogram, which is based in Memphis, Tenn., produces processed meat products in the Patriot Centre industrial park. Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who attended the announcement, said Virginia successfully competed with two other states to win the expansion project.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp. (EDC) to make it happen, Bolling said.

Several incentives were involved. Gov. Bob McDonnell approved a $100,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, and Memphis-based Monogram will receive $450,000 from the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission in return for the job creation and an additional $4 million capital investment, officials said.

Karl Schledwitz, chairman and CEO of the company, traveled from Knoxville, Tenn., on Friday morning to attend the announcement. Schledwitz said that although incentive funds are critical to a project, an area’s work force is the first consideration.

“This is a great work force,” Schledwitz said, adding the quality work force was the biggest factor in the company’s decision to expand its local facility.

“We have added several hundred jobs in the last year,” not only locally, but in other areas as well, he said. He noted the company is “looking at three other acquisitions” now.

He did not elaborate.

“When we’re picking a place to expand, we have choices, but it’s the people you hire” who make the difference, he said.

Monogram bought the former Knauss Snack Foods plant in August. At that time, there were 120 employees, and some were working only about three and a half days per week, Schledwitz said.

Now, overtime work is sometimes available, he said.

Equipment needed for the first phase of the company’s new growth is expected to be installed and operational by July 12, with the majority of the balance installed in the fall, officials said.

Most of the new jobs will be filled by the end of 2010, Schledwitz said. Some temporary workers will fill a portion of those new jobs, he added, but he did not know the exact number.

Once filled, the new jobs will allow the company to “more than quadruple the production coming out of this plant” compared with when Monogram bought it, Schledwitz said.

To accommodate the new equipment and production, Monogram shifted 50,000 square feet of warehouse space to leased space in another facility in the Patriot Centre, he said.

Future growth at the local site will mean expanding the facility, he said. “We do have the land” for a future expansion if needed, he added.

In April, Gov. Bob McDonnell visited the plant to present Monogram with a $2 million loan from the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority. Those funds were part of the company’s initial commitment with the state and were used to add about 130 workers and make investments, according to Schledwitz.

Now, Monogram is ready to grow again as it adds the 150 new jobs for a total of 400, Schledwitz said.

Bolling praised state and local officials for working together to support the company.

“Mark Heath did a great job,” Bolling said, referring to the president and CEO of the Martinsville-Henry County EDC. “You have a great local economic development team in Martinsville and Henry County.”

Incentives approved through bipartisan efforts in the General Assembly also drew his praise.

“There are no red jobs. There are no blue jobs,” Bolling said.

State Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Ridgeway; Del. Don Merricks, R-Pittsylvania County; Mary Rea Carter, deputy secretary of commerce and trade for rural economic development; and county and city officials also attended the announcement.

Dels. Danny Marshall, R-Danville, and Ward Armstrong, D-Collinsville, worked on the project but were unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts, said Reynolds.

The Henry County Board of Supervisors and the Industrial Development Authority met earlier Friday and approved the terms of performance agreements between the company and incentive partners. According to the agreement between the county, Monogram and the IDA, the average annual wage of the new jobs will be $21,840.

That is less than the prevailing average annual wage locally of $29,217, the agreement notes. However, it says, “economic circumstances in the area are sufficiently distressed that assistance to the locality to attract the project is nonetheless justified.”

Schledwitz said the new jobs will include back office positions, supervisors and workers on the floor. He said the salaries will vary but will be comparable to current wages.

Earlier this month, Monogram received $5.75 million in a guaranteed loan of stimulus funds through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program. Company officials said those funds would be used to refinance other loans with unfavorable interest rates to free up working capital that would be used to invest and pursue new customers.

At that time, company officials said new jobs likely would pay $8.50 to $12 per hour.

For information on the jobs, contact Ameristaff, Schledwitz said.