Gates
Corporation
 "Locating
in Virginia's aCorridor proved to be so successful the company has
also moved a division headquarters to the Glade Spring facility.
The quality of the workforce is double what we see in other areas."
Daniel R. Gorton
Vice
President
North
America Mobile Fluid Power Gates Corporation
Proximity
to customers and suppliers on the East Coast was a priority for
Denver-based Gates Corporation when the company began looking for
an additional manufacturing location in 2006.
Gates
looked at 15 locations in four states and chose an 87,500 sq. ft.
shell building in the 300-acre Highlands Business Park in Glade
Spring. The park was developed as a joint effort between Smyth and
Washington counties, and is owned and operated by the Smyth-Washington
Regional Industrial Facilities Authority. With its excellent location
at Exit 29 of I-81, one of the busiest truck routes in the U.S.,
its proximity to Gates customers "and the outstanding
assistance
we received from the state, regional, and local economic development
team, our experience here has been very positive," said Gates
officials.
The
quality of the available workforce continues to be a positive factor
for Gates which had nearly 1,000 applicants for its start-up phase,
and the company is impressed with the skill levels of the workforce
and the assistance received from the Virginia Employment Commission.
Daniel
R. Gorton, Vice President of the North America Mobile Fluid Power
division for Gates, said the quality of the workforce "is double
what we see in other areas."
"In
other locations we may have three out of 10 that we call back for
a second interview. Here, it's more like six to eight out of 10,"
said Gorton, who is located in the corporation's Denver headquarters.
 Gates
supplies world-class hydraulic hoses, couplings, adapters, accessories
and crimpers to meet the fluid power needs of heavy industry. The
Glade Spring plant also produces port-to-port tube assemblies. Gates
is currently operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week with 200
employees. Plant manager Bob Atwood said employment will reach 250
in spring 2011.
The
mobile fluid power division that is now headquartered at Glade Spring
is using automated robotic technology to bend tubing and create
innovative metal tubing components and modular assemblies.
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