Procter & Gamble Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Proponents Say Railroad Deal Could Boost W.Va.'s Economy, Attract Jobs To Eastern Panhandle

Colorado-based OmniTRAX, a freight-only transportation company that links several railroads from coast to coast in the U.S., purchased the Winchester & Western Railroad for $105 million in September.

The railroad runs through part of West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, and the purchase is expected to improve West Virginia’s economy by attracting more businesses to the Eastern Panhandle.

The Winchester & Western Railroad has been around since 1916. It stretches from southern New Jersey, through Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle, covering about 100 miles.

Winchester & Western Railroad employee and Berkeley County native Eddie McKee said the interchange at Corning Way in Martinsburg is critical to the operation of the Winchester & Western.

“This is just about the center of the railroad, and the majority of our customers is right in this area, within five miles,” McKee said.

Two of those customers are the Argos cement plant and Procter & Gamble, both in Martinsburg.

McKee thinks OmniTRAX will increase the customer-base for the Winchester & Western Railroad, reaching more industrial companies that will rely on their rail service.

“Basically, it’s another company that we didn’t have, like Procter & Gamble. I mean, Procter & Gamble come here, brand new, OmniTRAX is brand new to West Virginia. So, it’s a win-win for West Virginia. They have so many resources that it’s great,” he said.

Part of the Winchester & Western Railroad at Corning Way in Martinsburg.

OmniTRAX is headquartered in Denver and owns 23 railroads all over the U.S. and in parts of Canada. It also owns more than 500 short line and regional railroads. About 350 industrial customers like P&G, steel companies, and oil and natural gas companies use those railroads to ship their goods.

But the Winchester & Western Railroad is only their second line in the northeast.

“For OmniTRAX, it gets us a dot on the map in a market that we’ve been interested in for a very long time,” Ean Johnson, Vice President of Economic Development at OmniTRAX, said in an interview via Skype.

Johnson said a major benefit in purchasing Winchester & Western is the rail’s proximity to more than 100 million people within a day’s drive. He said that’s a huge draw for potential manufacturing companies looking for a new place to set up shop.

“It’s providing access to market, which then allows our customers to make those strategic decisions to locate their facilities,” he said.

And those facilities that look to locate near the Winchester & Western Railroad will help to diversify West Virginia’s economy, bringing more jobs to the Eastern Panhandle area, Johnson said.

“Oftentimes those jobs are well-paying manufacturing jobs that stick around communities for a very long time.”

The Winchester & Western Railroad is considered a short line, and it’s made up of two divisions. The first is the Virginia Division. It has 53 miles of track running through the Shenandoah Valley and moves about 12,500 carloads per year. The second is the New Jersey Division. It has 47 miles and moves 8,500 carloads per year.

The New Jersey Division interconnects with the Winchester & Western Railroad in Martinsburg. Both divisions have connections to CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern – two major railroads called Class 1s.

The purchase of the Winchester & Western gave OmniTRAX a total of 470 railcars and seven locomotives to add to their overall operation, and the company also picked up about 60 employees through the Winchester & Western.

Berkeley County officials are also glad to see the purchase.

Sandy Hamilton, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority, said that for years the Winchester & Western Railroad was underutilized, but she thinks OmniTRAX will help the railroad and the communities around it grow.

“We have a gem here. We have a great line that would cost billions of dollars to replicate it,” she said.

Hamilton notes OmniTRAX will bring in new capital, resources, and support to the railroad, and she believes the impact will filter out throughout West Virginia.

“They have some exciting ideas, they have exciting connections, and I think it’ll be someone good that we can partner with to market.”

But in terms of actual dollar amount, the total economic impact for the community is yet to be determined.

W.Va. Procter & Gamble Plant to Hire 900 Employees by 2020

Officials from Procter and Gamble have announced additional products will be manufactured at the Martinsburg plant and, as a result, more employees will be needed.

Since construction began in 2015 for West Virginia’s Procter and Gamble plant, the organization estimated a need for 700 full-time employees to be hired by 2019.

But it was announced this week that additional hair care products, body wash, and dish care items will be manufactured there. Officials say the [transfer of] additional production will be completed by 2020 and require an extra 200 full-time employees.

Products include items such as Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Aussie and Herbal Essences shampoos and conditioners; Olay, Old Spice, Gillette and Ivory body washes; Dawn, Joy, Gain and Ivory hand dish washing products; Swiffer; and Bounce.

Bounce will be the first items produced at the West Virginia site, beginning Feb. 14.

More than 300 employees have been hired already. Most are local. Officials say the search for more applicants continues.

Q&A: Berkeley County Development Authority Outlines Challenges & Statewide Impact

Berkeley County is one of the fastest growing counties in West Virginia. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2013 and 2016, the population grew by 4,300 people. It’s also the second most-populated county in the state.

With big businesses like Procter and Gamble moving in, it seems like the population will only continue to grow, so how does the county handle that?

West Virginia Public Broadcasting spoke with Sandy Hamilton, Executive Director of the Berkeley County Development Authority to talk about challenges in the growing region and her thoughts on the county’s overall impact on the state.

Biggest Challenges:

Building a dependable workforce
Keeping up with infrastructure needs

Impact:

Hamilton says she hopes Berkeley County’s growth “provides hope” for the rest of the state and for each area of West Virginia to focus and emphasize its strengths.

Procter & Gamble Still Looking for New Hires

Construction of the upcoming Procter and Gamble site in Martinsburg is well on track, but the company is still looking for 400 new hires to work the plant once fully built.

Since groundbreaking in September 2015, the Procter and Gamble site in Martinsburg has been the work zone for an average of 1,000 construction workers.

P&G officials say nine buildings will be located on the nearly 500-acre site, and all nine are seeking LEED certification – that stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

By 2019, about 700 total employees are expected to be on the site. So far, a total of 265 people have been hired, with most of those from West Virginia.

Sandy Hamilton is the Executive Director of the Berkeley County Development Authority. She says P&G has totally changed the state’s business climate.

“Once word got out that P&G’s here,” she noted, “that’s like a marketing finanza that you know, other companies in other areas of the world who didn’t know we existed, now they know we do.”

The West Virginia P&G site will be the largest Procter and Gamble site built in a decade. It will manufacture products like body wash, shampoo & conditioner, and fabric softener.

Bounce will be the first major brand made with production expected to begin in January 2018. It will be about four more years before the site is in full operation.

*Editor’s Note: This story originally indicated P&G in Martinsburg would make laundry detergent, however, this was not correct. The mistake has been removed.

New Hires, Training, and Construction – Procter & Gamble on Track

West Virginia’s first Procter and Gamble manufacturing site located in Martinsburg has been accepting job applications since October 2015, and now the first employees for the plant have been hired. By 2019, about 700 total employees are expected to be working on the site, but there are plenty of hoops to jump through before production actually begins.

At Tabler Station in Martinsburg, hundreds of construction workers have been moving massive amounts of dirt since breaking ground in September 2015 for West Virginia’s first ever Procter and Gamble manufacturing site. Once completed, it will cover about one million square feet and be the largest P&G site built in a decade.

Doug Copenhaver is the President of the Berkeley County Council. He says this plant is already having a major impact on West Virginia’s workforce.

“A project this size is a huge construction project,” he explained, “so you’ve got to go to the people that can get the job done, and one of the things with P&G is they’re really proactive on trying to use as much workforce here locally, and not only locally but within the state of West Virginia.”

So far, over 5 million cubic yards of earth have been removed – that’s about 10 million tons of dirt.

The first bit of concrete is expected to be poured in January, and while the entire site won’t be fully operational for another four to five years, P&G representatives say by the end of 2017, the Tabler Station site should be moving employees into the location.

But what happens in the meantime? Well – lots of training.

Recently, P&G hired its first 26 employees, and by next fall, they hope to have 300 new hires.

Blue Ridge Community and Technical College is partnering with the company to help train those new employees — 90 percent of which will be plant technicians, working with the machinery making the products.

Alan Zube, the Program Coordinator for Mechatronics and CAD, or Computer Aided Design, at Blue Ridge,led reporters on a tour of the three-classroom training area used by the new P&G employees. He’s in charge of leading a training program for all of P&G’s new hires.

“Every one of the employees that Procter and Gamble’s training for the entry level positions are coming through us for a three-week long for what they’re calling component training,” he said.

Zube says the component training is a mixture of electrical work, mechanical drive systems, and motor controls.

“It’s very rigorous,” he noted, “I mean, that three weeks, they’re in here from 7:30 in the morning pretty much til 4:30 in the afternoon. We try to do a little bit of lecture, and then get ‘em over here in the lab, little bit of lecture, get ‘em over here in the lab; you know, I would say more than 50 percent of it is gonna be hands on.”

Procter and Gamble pays for the training received at Blue Ridge, but West Virginia has also pitched in with grants to help as well. And after that first three weeks, P&G employees continue to receive additional training as they move through their career with the company.

P&G also rents out a large warehouse on Blue Ridge’s campus where all the new hires learn to make the products they’ll eventually make at the Tabler Station plant like body wash, laundry detergent, fabric softener, and others.

22 year-old Pear Dhiantravan is one of the company’s newest employees. She’s already completed the initial training period.

Dhiantravan has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering, and was hired as a Process Engineer with P&G. She moved from Chicago to Martinsburg in August for the job and says West Virginia is really growing on her.

“We had a beautiful fall, and I’ve been to wineries out here, and I’m really getting to know the area, and it’s like, gorgeous, like, I think it’s a really, really beautiful state,” she said.

Even though Dhiantravan is new to the state, 23 of the 26 new technicians are natives.

Starting pay for entry level plant technicians is more than $33,000 a year, that’s not including a $20,000 annual benefits package. P&G reps say that annual salary grows fairly quickly overtime, too.

P&G in Martinsburg Hires First Employees

Procter and Gamble in Martinsburg has hired its first 26 employees and expects close to 300 by the end of 2017. Those employees will work at the manufacturing facility being built in the Eastern Panhandle that was announced last year.

Since breaking ground in September 2015, construction for the 25^th Procter and Gamble site in the United States is well underway.

The facility will be the company’s first in West Virginia and the largest P&G manufacturing site built in a decade. When it’s completed, it’ll cover more than one million square feet.

P&G employees will be manufacturing products in Martinsburg like Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Bounce, and Old Spice Body Wash.

By fall 2019, company representatives say they expect the facility to employ around 700 people in total.

The first 26 employees were hired over the last three months.

32 year-old Scott Johnson is one of them. Johnson is an Air Force veteran and formerly a mechanic from Beckley. He was hired as a plant technician and moved to Hedgesville with his family in 2015.

He says he chose to move to the Eastern Panhandle because of economic opportunities.

“We’ve talked about, you know when I was growing up, man I wish we had some of the stuff like the bigger areas for manufacturing jobs,” Johnson noted, “and we’ve always talked about, man I wish we had some factories or something to work at, like some of these other areas, and it’s just great to finally see something this large coming here, and it’ll attract others I think.”

P&G is also working with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College to train its new workforce. The company will pay their employees to go through a specialized program developed for the site.

The first bit of concrete is expected to be poured on the Martinsburg site in January.

*Correction: This post was updated on December 14, 2016 to reflect the Martinsburg Procter and Gamble site as the 25th P&G plant built in the United States. A correction was also made to reflect “Old Spice Body Wash” as a brand that will be manufactured on the site.