Wilmington News-Journal from Wilmington, Ohio • 31

Thursday March 23 1989 Wilmington News Journal 7A BaMB ignBA fejg Artist rendering of new office building erno Washington continues construction expansion erno fiscal yeak 1988 saw construction and fiscal year 1989 is seeing expansion In the interest of maintaining a strong hold in the long term care market erno sold its orge hospital products division to Castle MDT last year and consolidated the Ille hydrotherapy manufacturing facility into the corporateheadquarters in Wilmington ormerly the orge and Ille divisions were located in William sport Pa Last con struction prepared a 33000 square foot addition to the plant to make room for Ille division Construction is well underway for a new 22000 square foot three story office building enclosing a cour tyard with fountain landscaping and outdoor dining area Occupation of the new office facility is expected early this summer Product lines have expanded as well Salesmaker division introduced a new line of economical transport carts known as the MultiCarrier The Ille therapy division introduced a new physical therapy table and a space age hydrotherapy turbine The Disposables market has increased with line of antiseptics disinfectants and skin care products for nursing homes and hospitals Bathing division is seeing a stronger presence in its second year Emergency division is sponsoring a video magazine for Emergency Medical Technicians and is preparing to market a revolutionary new backboard for land and water rescue Industrial safety and mortuary lines continue to prosper Global marketing and telemarketing hot topics in the business world are not new to erno The International division continues to seek new markets with President El Bourgraf and International Vice President Gary Hiles visiting China The new telemarketing department was implemented to respond to the in house advertising leads and to provide a sales support base Computer technology has taken hold as well The new IBM AS 400 is now in place as well as MAPICS II a software for manufacturing ac counting and production information control Computer aided design and manufacturing (CAD CAM) has become a design tool for the engineering department and desktop publishing is now at work in the advertising department In the last year the workforce at erno has increased by almost 100 In the last five years it has nearly doubled Says a company spokesman remains com mitted to the Clinton County area and to providing top quality products to the market we Clinton Builders keeps steady pace Since taking over Clinton Builders Supply 1481 US 68 in June of 1986 Larry Gibbs said little has changed from the time the company was known as Clinton Construction Co is pretty much the said Gibbs who is district manager of Clinton Builders Supply upgraded our equipment but no major Probably the biggest addition to CBS was the decision to manufacture its own septic tanks i felt that was a natural related Gibbs said Clinton Builders Supply is best known for its ready mix concrete concrete blocks and concrete or masonry related items Included in that would be the pre cast septic tanks explained Gibbs Other items Clinton Builders Supply has on hand are a full line of Thoro Products Amweld Steel doors and a full line of Sakrete products including concrete mix mortar mix sand mix and blacktop Clinton Builders also has pre cast concretes items such as steps splash blocks for a downspout bumper blocks for a parking lot walk blocks CBS carries all necessary tools hammers nails trowels levels etc for homeowners and contractors who need to work with any type of concrete or masonry Clinton Builders Supply also carries more than 150 styles of bricks Gibbs pointed out that CBS handles fireplace items such as fire brick a damper and clean out door Clinton Builders Supply has one dump truck one boom truck for block deliveries two tractor and trailers one cement tanker and one flatbed and seven ready mix thicks for all concrete that leaves CBS main office is in Columbus seems that ever since been here (in Wilmington) construction and building businessi has increased every Gibbs said sales have increased every year I expect things to continue like this but we are pleased and impressed with the growth of construction in liRBORNE EXPRESS Airborne Express Starts New Year With New Name With 1989 comes a new name for the all cargo express airline formerly known as Airborne Express Inc Located at the Airborne Air Park just outside Wilmington the airljne is now officially known as ABX Air Inc According to Al Wiseman ABX Air Inc president the name change was made to avoid confusion The parent company Airborne reight Corporation which is headquartered at Seattle Wash began using the name "Airborne as its service mark in 1985 While that service mark more accurately described the business confusion arose in identifying the different corporations This led to renaming the airline Airborne reight is both an air freight forwarder and an air express company that speeds nearly all of its customers' domestic shipments around the country via its airline subsidiary ABX Air Inc Both Airborne reight and ABX Air Inc will continue doing business as Airborne Express Airborne Express Leads Air reight Industry In Rate Of Growth Again in 1988 as in several recent years Airborne Express led the highly com petitive air express industry in percent of growth In 1988 Airborne enjoyed a 32 percent growth in shipments Much of success has been attributed to its being a dependable low cost operator The airline ABX Air Inc fka Airborne Express has made and continues to make a major contribution in both dependable and cost effective service Airborne's rapid growth can be seen in both the growth of the airline and in ship ment count In 1980 the year the airline was created Airborne moved four million shipments The corporate goal for 1989 is 60 million shipments! Since its creation in 1980 when the airline employed between 300 and 400 ABX Air Inc has grown to more than 2000 em ployees That makes the airline the largest employer in a six county area in south western Ohio Around The World rom To Wilmington More than one million pounds of ship ments destined for worldwide delivery are processed each business night at the package sorting facility at the Airborne Air Park near Wilmington In January 1985 the freight corporation elected to utilize the trade name of borne Express" with all future public presentation of the company to carry this name The purpose of the changes was to more clearly communicate the cor poration's business An Air Park History The history of the site where the Airborne Air Park is located is a colorful one It started in 1929 when a group of local aeroplane enthusiasts initiated flvmo ar tivities at what would later become the home of Airborne Express Barnstormer Stormy Roderick was hired as an instructor and an old cornfield was used for the landing strip Soon Stormy was staging afternoon shows and attracting large crowds to the borrowed field In 1930 a small hangar was built In 1933 the Civil Works Administration approved the landing strip and later that year American Airlines wanted the strip as an emergency landing field American in vested the first private money In 1942 the Army Air Corps assumed control of the field and laid the first coat of concrete paving to the runway During World War II gliders soared over the area as the Clinton County Army ield was devoted to glider research training and development until the end of the war The base was used by the All Weather lying Division until 1949 when it was "put in mothballs As a result of the Korean Conflict the base was reopened It saw a variety of tenants including air reserve training groups Strategic Air Command and the Ohio Air National tanker (refueling) wing In 1960 the 6000 foot runway was ex tended 3000 feet to 9000 feet with an ad ditional 1000 foot overrun on each end The base was closed by the US Depart ment of Defense in September 1971 A group of concerned citizens visited Washington seeking revocation of the closure order but the base was closed Through the combined efforts of gover nment and citizen representatives the area later became the home of a vocational school "community college and an in dustrial air park and eventually the home of Airborne and the Airborne Air Park Many of the streets and roads in the air park are named for the people who worked so diligently to convert the former military base into the air park Many improvements were completed in 1988 including: receiving a patent fur unique cargo container the Container the purchase of a DC 8 simulator the initiation of a regional sort hub in the northeastern section of the country and the rennovation and oc cupancy of a 65000 square foot accessory component overhaul shop A Look At The Parent Company The parent company Airborne reight has its roots in the period immediately following the Second World War when an upturn in consumer spending created a demand for fresh California flowers in Eastern markets In 1946 the Airborne lower Traffic Association was formed to meet the rapid transport requirements for its perishable cargo In 1947 Airborne was incorporated as Airborne lower Traffic Inc and went public in 1953 4 Meanwhile another company Pacific Air reight Inc was capitalizing on the Pacific Northwest's traditional role as the gateway to Alaska Pacific Air reight was formed in 1949 and by 1968 had stations in 36 cities Merger talks with Airborne began and on October 17 1968 the merger became final The name reight Cor poration" was retained and the corporate office was moved to Seattle With the advent of airline deregulation in 1977 Airborne immediately began to charter aircraft to improve delivery times leading to the Midwest merger and the creation of the airline Airborne Express In June 1981 the airline put fnto operation the first phase of its state of the art package sorting facility This was the first of many projects undertaken to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing airline In 1983 the airline's sophisticated Category II instrument landing system (CAT II ILS) was completed and received ederal Aviation Administration approval It was the first privately owned operated and maintained CAT II system in the United States In 1984 the airline's subsidiary Airborne TZ Inc received approvals as the nation only privately owned foreign trade zone Among projects completed in 1985 were a new jet fuel facility with 410000 gallons storage capacity for Jet A fuel a DC 9 simulator built to the airline's specifications and standards and an ex panded facility for property and ground support equipment That year too the airline purchased its first DC 8 and began modifications in cluding installing an electronic flight in strumentationsystem (EIS) Also in 1985 the Airborne Animal Export Station was dedicated and ground was broken for the Airborne Commerce Park A warehousing and distribution center the Commerce Park is a joint venture between Airborne and a group of Columbus Ohio developers In 1986 the package sorting facility was renovated and expanded to more than double its previous capacity Also in 1986 a new administrative offices training com plex and a 50000 square foot aircraft maintenance hangar were constructed Accomplishments in 1987 included the erection of a ground traffic control tower which is used to coordinate ground traffic and for sequencing aircraft departures This tower will be used as a traffic control tower in a few more years At the close of the business day packages being shipped via Airborne are loaded on the Airborne aircraft at airports all across the nation Soon these aircraft are flying toward the Airborne Air Park at Wilmington Shortly after midnight the Airborne planes begin arriving at the air park Highly trained and experienced cargo handlers quickly off load the aircraft and shipments are rushed to the Sort Center 1 At this package sorting facility the shipments are sorted according to their destination cities The shipments are then loaded on the appropriate aircraft to be flown to their destinations The last plane is scheduled to arrive at the air nark at 3 15 am The first aircraft is scheduled to depart the air park at 4:16 More than 45 aircraft fly into and out of the Airborne Air Park each business night By dawn all the planes have left Wilmington speeding customers' packages to their appropriate cities for delivery just a few hours after they were shipped Many of the aircraft make mid route stops at various airports before reaching the airport where their routes terminate for the shipping day At each airport the aircraft are met by trucks and employees of Airborne where the shipments are unloaded onto trucks for delivery Most shipments are delivered before Shipments with international destinations are taken to gateway cities where they are consolidated then flown via other airlines to the various countries including behind the iron curtain After delivering the shipments parent company (Airborne reight) employees begin picking Up packages and the pick up and delivery cycle begins again A brief I History Most airlines fly to move people ABX Air Inc flies to move packages as a part of the1 air express industry The airline came into existence in April 1980 when Midwest Charter Express merged into Airborne Express Inc a wholly owned subsidiary of Airborne reight Corporation Airborne is publicly ownedand traded on the New York Stock Exchange At the time of the merger Midwest was flying cancelled checks for the ederal Reserve Banking System and carrying shipments for Airborne Midwest had been flying several types of smaller aircraft and Airborne immediately began standardizing its fleet with larger transport type aircraft a ii Xv'.