Lane County, Oregon Nov 21, 2008
Agencies laud places that work
September 4th, 2008
Agencies laud places that work
By Sherri Buri McDonald
The Register-Guard
Lane County has had its share of bad economic news lately, with layoffs in wood products, RV manufacturing and Hynix’s announcement last month that it would close its Eugene computer chip factory and lay off about 1,000 workers by September.
But some businesses have managed to buck those downwardeconomic trends, and on Thursday, more than 170 business and government leaders gathered at the Valley River Inn to honor them at an annual business work force awards luncheon.
Bicycle manufacturer Bike Friday, cereal and tea maker Golden Temple, and Oregon Medical Laboratories were all honored for their employment growth, innovation and commitment to providing quality jobs.
The Lane Workforce Partnership, a local work force development agency, and the Lane Metro Partnership, a local economic development agency, have jointly sponsored the awards for the past five years.
The program’s keynote speaker, Linda Dagg, executive director of Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s call center in downtown Eugene, shared some additional good news for the local economy.
Enterprise came to Eugene in January with plans to hire 200 workers. The company now has more than 200 employees handling 10,000 customer service calls a day for Enterprise and its sister brands, National and Alamo.
The center wants to hire 250 more workers by April, Dagg said, plus 75 Spanish-speaking customer service representatives to address demand for those services.
The ratio of full-time workers to part-time workers at the center is higher than Enterprise executives thought it would be, Dagg said.
About 75 percent of the jobs are full time and 25 percent part time, she said.
When Enterprise was looking at placing its newest call center in Eugene, Dagg said several executives at the company’s headquarters in St. Louis, Mo., wondered whether a conservative company such as Enterprise — the company has a dress code: no sandals, for example — would fit in in laid-back Eugene.
No problem, Dagg said. Eugene workers have embraced Enterprise’s corporate environment and consistently score well on customer satisfaction surveys, she said.
In accepting Bike Friday’s award, Alan Scholz, who founded the company with his brother Hanz in the early 1980s, said, “We’re on the other side of Eugene. We do come to work in tie-dye and sandals.”
The maker of innovative fold-up and travel bikes now has 45 employees and $5 million in annual sales.
Nearly all of the company’s products (90 percent) are shipped out of Oregon and a third are shipped out of the country, Scholz said. Bike Friday has a unique enough product that it actually exports bikes to China at a time when most bikes sold in the United States are made in China, he said.
Golden Temple, also based in Eugene, was honored for its more than 35 years in the natural foods business and its strong employment growth.
The company has 300 employees in Lane County, which includes 73 jobs added in the past 12 months.
Oregon Medical Labs, which operates out of the former Sony compact disc plant in Springfield’s Gateway area, was honored for prominence in its market, strong employment growth and consistent recognition of its workplace culture and environment. The company has more than doubled its staff since 1986.
Today, it has 10 labs across three states, 650 employees and annual revenues of $120 million.
Fast Facts
Headlines
-
Nov 13 2008
-
Oct 07 2008
-
Sep 04 2008
-
Jul 25 2008
-
May 02 2008