Toyota to add 80 jobs at Buffalo plant
By Kate White

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Toyota will increase production at the company’s plant in Putnam County and create 80 jobs, according to the general manager of Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia

“This shows Toyota Japan believes in us and our team members,” Mike Lutz said.

An investment of about $45 million will allow the company, which builds six-speed transmissions for the Avalon, Camry, Lexus RX350, Sienna and Venza, to increase production capacity from about 400,000 to 520,000 beginning in November, according to a news release.

The expansion, which will be done in two phases, Lutz said, is expected to be completed by July 2013 and will raise employment at the Toyota plant in Buffalo to 1,200 and its total investment to $1.3 billion.

Last year, the Buffalo plant celebrated its 15th anniversary. Thursday’s announcement marks the seventh time the plant has expanded since it opened, according to the company.

“What we’ll be doing in two phases is increasing the capacity of the line that we announced last year,” Lutz said. “Last year we added the machinery and this year we’ll increase the capacity.”

Eventually, he said, the expansion will allow the plant to produce 10,000 more transmissions per month.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., first met with the chairman of Toyota in Japan in 1986. Ten years later, Toyota announced it would locate a $400 million engine plant in Buffalo with 350 jobs.

In a news release, Rockefeller said the Toyota plant is “the largest industrial investment in the state in the last 50 years.”

“Now employing almost 1,200 workers from over twenty counties around the state, Toyota has continued to show its commitment to growth,” Rockefeller said in the release. “I’m proud to have helped bring the company here more than 15 years ago, but really we should all thank the workers at Toyota – they are the reason that the company continues to expand, and it’s their dedication and hard work that makes such growth possible.”

Lutz also said the expansion is a testament to the company’s team members.

“Two or three years ago when the economy collapsed, we kept people working…I said ‘hey listen, let’s go and improve things and make business stronger so when we come out of this we’ll be able to grow,’” he said. “Even through a difficult period we stayed on task.”

Other state politicians, including Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin; Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., all lauded the expansion.

Reach Kate White at kate.wh…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.

http://wvgazette.com/News/201203010098

Charleston finished at 48 in this year’s list. Milken’s best-performing cities index ranks U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth.

According to the U.S Census Bureau, MSAs are geographic entities defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for use by federal statistical agencies in collecting, tabulating, and publishing federal statistics.

The Charleston MSA consists of five counties: Kanawha, Putnam, Boone, Lincoln and Clay.

To see the list and study results, click HERE.

The components for the list include job, wage and salary and technology growth. Milken rates 379 metropolitan areas in the list. Charleston was ranked in the largest metro category.

“The positive factors for our MSA included job growth, wage and salary growth. Where this study shows we have room for improvement is in the high-technology gross domestic product growth,” said Alliance President and CEO Matt Ballard.

“The Alliance is keenly aware this is an area needed for growth. That’s why we are working together to move the needle on technology progress along with our partners at the Chemical Alliance Zone, MATRIC, TechConnect WV, the WV Angel Investors Network and others.”

The Alliance acknowledges the hard work of all five counties, all the businesses within and community leaders that have helped our MSA achieve new levels of success.

We are confident that the efforts of our elected officials, community leaders and the Alliance to create jobs, enhance our community and invest in people, will help Charleston continue to climb the list.

Working together, the best is yet to come!

published by NGI’s Shale Daily: December 15, 2011

A new company has leased about 1,500 acres in the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and hopes to find investors to raise $2 billion to develop an ethane cracker and other downstream facilities.

Meanwhile, more than 600 people have signed an online petition stating their support for construction of a cracker in the Kanawha Valley, while an industry report estimates that ethane production in the United States will increase 50% by 2016.

Invictus LLC, a company incorporated last fall, has a five-year option on 1,456 acres in the Upper Kanawha Valley near Coalburg. Richard Neely — a Charleston attorney and former West Virginia Supreme Court Justice who is a principal partner at Invictus — told NGI’s Shale Daily the company has bold plans for the property, a former mountaintop removal strip mine.

“It may end up being a refinery in addition to being a cracker,” Neely said Tuesday. “We’re exploring the possibility of converting some of this Marcellus Shale gas into things like diesel fuel — using some version of the Fischer-Tropsch [FT] process — and into naphtha and some other useful products. We’re not limiting ourselves to simply separating out the ethylene and converting it to ethylene oxide.”

According to Neely, Invictus’ other investors are former Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Callaghan, Cunningham Energy President Ryan Cunningham and the Charleston-based firm Gaddy Engineering.

Neely said the company was looking to raise $3 million in equity funds to create a plant design model that would satisfy DEP requirements for an air permit, conduct further research into FT technology and take bids from contractors for the construction of the plant, which is estimated to cost $2 billion.

“This plant could help revitalize the chemical industry in Charleston,” Neely said. “We have plenty of room for other plants on our 1,456 acres. If somebody wanted to build a chemical plant there and pipe directly into the ethylene oxide, they could do it. Or they could use the existing pipelines in the valley or ship it by rail car.”

Neely said his partners were confident that the $2 billion for the plant could be raised on the private capital market, but the company was open to discussing a joint venture with a major.

“There are a lot of issues we have yet to sort out,” Neely said. “But if West Virginia wants to develop and profit from the Marcellus and Utica [shales], then there is nothing for it but to start putting one foot in front of the other and marching on, solving problems as they arise.”

The type of facility envisioned by Neely and his partners would thrill the Charleston Area Alliance (CAA), which has created an online petition seeking support for an ethane cracker in the Kanawha Valley.

“We still have a fairly sizable chemical industry here, with companies like Bayer, Dow, DuPont and others,” Matthew Ballard, CEO of the CAA, told NGI’s Shale Daily on Tuesday. “This would help recharge the industry and really help us achieve some downstream successes from the ethane cracker as well.”

Ballard estimated that an ethane cracker would require at least a $1.5 billion investment, but would create thousands of construction jobs over a couple of years, followed by several hundred permanent jobs. He added that several downstream jobs would also be created at existing businesses because they would no longer have to import feedstock from elsewhere to create polyethylene, ethylene oxide and other products.

“We know how to do this,” Ballard said, adding that the world’s first ethane cracker was built in Clendenin, a town about 15 miles from the state capital, Charleston. “There are a lot of chemical engineers and chemical operators here in the valley that would be anxious to jump on board with a project like this.”

According to a report by Bentek Energy LLC and Turner, Mason & Co., American ethane production is expected to rise 50% — or by 475 million b/d — by 2016. The report said Texas would account for most (280 million b/d) of an increase in American ethane supplies, while the demand for ethane will increase to 352 million b/d over the next five years.

Several companies are eyeing the states of the Marcellus Shale region as the location for an ethane cracker.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is reportedly considering sites in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania for a world-class cracker that could consume 60,000-80,000 b/d of ethane (see Shale Daily, Dec. 5; Sept. 7). And West Virginia officials have made the argument on several occasions that the Mountain State is the best option for an ethane cracker (see Shale Daily, Aug. 26; July 18; May 6; Dec. 23, 2010).

Elsewhere, a unit of Range Resources Corp. has agreed to supply Marcellus Shale ethane to Dow Chemical Co.’s existing operations in Louisiana, Westlake Chemical Corp. plans to expand its ethylene capacity, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. LP may build a world-class cracker in the Gulf Coast region and Sasol Ltd. is considering a cracker in Louisiana (see Shale Daily, April 25; April 7; March 29).

http://shaledaily.com

Charleston Area Alliance to debut its 20-year outlook
by Paul Fallon
Daily Mail Staff

The Charleston Area Alliance will unveil its 20-year development vision for the Kanawha Valley during a launch Nov. 22.

The debut of Vision 2030 will be at the new West Side Elementary School, 100 Florida St., at 9 a.m. The 20-year economic plan outlines economic goals for the next two decades, said Cullen Naumoff, project manager with Charleston Area Alliance.

It also lists what the Kanawha Valley needs to do to reach those goals, she said.

The economic outlook is basically a strategic plan that outlines the strengths in the Kanawha Valley. The plan also details how the area can capitalize on those strengths, Naumoff said.

“One of the Kanawha Valley’s strengths is that we have great people,” she said. “And the area has incredible beauty.”

The plan also focuses on Kanawha County’s strengths, such as the chemical industry and the energy sector. Naumoff believes the area is ideally situated in the energy sector because of the natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale.

The health care industry and educational institutions in the county will also help drive the economy in the coming two decades, she said.

Naumoff said the ideal economy 20 years down the road will be one that is very diversified. It will include energy companies that focus on coal, natural gas and green technologies.

A diversified economy will also need a combination of corporations and entrepreneurs in the area. This is already something that Charleston has, Naumoff said.

She pointed out that the city has corporations as well as unique shops and restaurants that are locally owned. She hopes the city, and the county as well, will be able to expand these sectors of the economy.

But there is no ironclad way to predict the valley’s economic future, she said. The goals are very general and help prove to businesses looking at locating in the area that community leaders and residents are looking to the future and are working on ways to expand the economy.

“Companies looking to invest in the region are wanting to see what the 10- to 20-year plan is,” she said.

Matt Ballard, president and chief executive officer of the Charleston Area Alliance, said he began to realize the area needed a 20-year plan when he started working to attract an ethane cracker to the area.

“Those companies asked us what the 20-year plan for the community was,” he said. “We were able to articulate what our plan was, but we didn’t have an actual document we could give them.”

Dates and times for community forums to discuss the 20-year plan will be announced during the launch. Community input is vital to creating the plan because it will illustrate the residents’ goals and how they hope to achieve them, Naumoff said.

“We know members of the community have great ideas,” she said. “The forums will be their chance to offer feedback.”

The kickoff is being held in an elementary school because children are the most valuable resource for the region’s future, she said. An informational “job fair” for third-graders will also be held during the event.

The energy industry, health care industry and other sectors will have representatives on hand to answer questions from the students.

In order to create “buzz” about the launch, murals designed by local artists will soon be hung around the city, Naumoff said. The murals represent the different economic drivers in the Kanawha Valley.

They were all designed and painted by local artists.

Contact writer Paul Fallon at paul.fallon@dailymail.com or 304-348-4817.

Check out the Yeager press release below:

The story below appeared in Thursday’s Charleston Daily Mail.

The Charleston Area Alliance recognized members of the 2010-2011 class of Leadership Kanawha Valley at its annual celebration at the Clay Center. Leadership Kanawha Valley is a leadership-development program affiliated with the Alliance.

Members of the class: Steve Burton of 1-800-Gambler/First Choice Health Systems; Patrick Snyder and Colt Sandoro of the Kanawha County Commission; Raymond Dodson of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra; Jason Golden and Daniel Vickers of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield; Joe Hager of Arnett & Foster; Tania Hotmer of Appalachian Power Co.; Jeff Sikorovsky of Hospice Care; Kelly Whitlock and Christopher Erlewine of BB&T; Michelle Taylor of First Choice Services; Almeda Tincher of Columbia Gas/NiSource; and Bruce Deal of Security America.

Also: John Bupp of Kay Casto and Chaney; Erin Brewster of Foster Law Firm; Trip Showen of Triad Engineering; Beth Maley of Fifth Third Bank; Mark Drennan of Children’s Home Society of West Virginia; Cartney McCracken of Rain Maker Inc.; Sheila Dickens of City National Bank; Jared Burdette of Summit Community Bank; Zach Cowan of Ernst & Young; Susan Blake of West Virginia American Water; and Andrew Beckner of Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s office.

By George Hohmann
Daily Mail Business Editor

Kathleen DuBois contemplated the breathtaking views from her fourth-floor office at One Bridge Place with wide-eyed wonder.

She is amazed at how far Progressity Inc., her marketing business, has come in 10 years.

“I grew up on the West Side,” she said. “I was the chief fundraiser for West Virginia University’s College of Engineering, working with entrepreneurial alumni every day. One of the alumni said, ‘You ought to start your own business.’ That conversation was in September 2001. I incorporated on Oct. 5, 2001, and left a wonderful job. I thought I needed to do this totally full-on.

“It was a jumping-off-a-diving-board leap of faith,” she said. “The day I left I landed a client. That was a sign to me I had made the right decision.

“We were getting hired to do marketing strategy, marketing plans,” she said. “Clients also wanted creative work. That’s where Michael Teel comes in. He started working part-time weeks after I started the firm. He’s a native of the Elkview area. He’s my brother-in-law. He was working in D.C., doing creative work for a global company, and he was our graphic designer on nights and weekends. Our creative business grew and his employment situation there was changing. He and his family packed up in 2005 and came here so he could work on site.

“We have changed and evolved so much in 10 years,” she said.

The company now has three employees at One Bridge Place – DuBois, Teel and Director of Operations Liz Hereford. Communications Strategist Melissa Macki works remotely from Virginia. The firm hires others, from videographers and photographers to direct-mail specialists, as needed.

“We do our own creative work,” DuBois said. “We developed a new website for our firm last September (it’s at www.progressity.com). We’ve evolved so much this year we will roll out another site in July. That’s two new websites in one year. We know our website needs to convey our abilities. It has to be fresh content. It has to be leading edge. We’re constantly looking at the landscape of the market. We have to change and adjust accordingly or we’re not going to be in business.

“From the beginning, somebody said, ‘Do you want to be a sole practitioner or a company?’ I was working out of my spare bedroom in Morgantown with particleboard office furniture. I said, ‘I want to be a company one day.’ It’s pretty surreal for me to walk in here and see what we’ve grown into.”

Progressity first set up shop in the Charleston Area Alliance’s business incubator on Smith Street. Then it built space on the Alliance’s fourth floor. “Then we needed more space and decided to shake things up and move to a new location,” DuBois said.

Last May 30, Progressity moved from 1,100 square feet of space at the Alliance to 2,300 square feet at One Bridge Place. “This is a lovely space,” DuBois said. “We love being here, in this part of town. It’s cool, creative and classy.”

DuBois said she “likes to work with clients who do good work in the world,” so her company does a lot of work for nonprofits such as schools, hospitals and social service agencies. “But I’m so passionate about entrepreneurism, creating our own destiny in life, we also work with businesses led by an entrepreneur.”

It therefore should be no surprise that when former Marshall University and University of Charleston head basketball coach Greg White decided to launch a motivational speaking business, Progressity helped him do it.

“One of the areas we work with clients on is helping them dream big and set goals,” DuBois said. “I’ve been a dreamer since I was a little girl. Four or five years ago we only had clients in West Virginia and surrounding states. We were doing an annual visioning session. I said, ‘Within a year I want to have clients in five states.’ It happened that at the same time I went through training to become a leadership coach.

“The training company is a global organization. They really connected with my energy and spirit and hired me to do some consulting work with them. Through that connection I immediately had global contacts and did business coaching for entrepreneurs over a period of two years in 12 countries.

“One challenge for many entrepreneurs is they know what they want to do, they just don’t know how to run a business,” DuBois said. “I worked with clients in New Zealand, England, Dubai, Belgium. It was fascinating. That connection helped us land clients in the states, from California to Florida.

“The part of our service delivery that is easiest to do remotely is our creative work. We’re doing websites for clients all over the country. Websites have become dynamic, an integral part of a company’s marketing strategy. Now there’s an infusion of social media. So we have a full-service suite of products to provide clients, whether they’re here in West Virginia or across the world.

“We’ve worked really hard to infuse technology in the way we’re doing business. We do drive and fly to visit clients. Once we have that connection, with the Internet and telephone we can deliver our service. That’s intellectual capital we’re sharing – we can share that through the phone lines and over the Internet.”

DuBois loves New York City. A while back she found herself going there more and more. Then, “two or three summers ago I rented an apartment in the Upper East Side for five weeks and landed three clients – a physicians’ office; the Guardian Angels (an unarmed citizens group that guards the subway); and a nonprofit called Sports Angels that raises money and distributes it to inner-city schools. It’s thrilling. It gives me a reason I have to go to New York City multiple times a year.

“That’s part of the whole ‘anything is possible,’ ” she said. “When we’re limited we’re only limiting ourselves. Our opportunities are as big as we can dream and we can’t just dream, we have to do something about it.

“I came home from New York City and spent a year or two debating, ‘Should I move to New York City and fly back here?’ I made the decision to stay in Charleston. I got on a plane and flew into Charley West. I thought, ‘I need to plant my roots here permanently. We can build our business in West Virginia but work beyond our borders.’ I signed a contract two months later to build a house, so I’m not going anywhere.”

DuBois is bubbling with plans. There’s a book, based on “Monday Motivation” columns she e-mails weekly. “It will be our first product,” she said. “We’re on a path of packaging our knowledge that’s valuable to other people, that we can sell to other people all over the world.”

And then there’s the children’s clothing line. But that’s another, future chapter.