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Page 6 Industrial Edition October 25 & 26, 2000 AUSTIN From Page 5 The company has 100 em- ployees. Forty of them work at the E. Belmont location. Their first product, and still a business staple, was electrical meters. Had they not been there . to realize the potential of the used light meters, millions of them would have been tossed ~ into landfills. Now they are cleaned and sold all around the globe. We sell some ‘as is' and refur- bish others," Ruth said. "Now we are in the service business. By that I mean we refurbish and remanufacture electrical meters to sell." Nowadays, Austin sells a wide variety of products such as circuit breakers, switches, control units, meter test boards, electrical tools and insulators, as well as hundreds of other products. Most are sold to in- dustrial companies although they do have some municipal customers in the U.S. They also deal in used and surplus equip- ment on consignment. The only item Austin sells to the public is a meter lamp. They _ use a refurbished meter which still operates. It is mounted on an attractive trophy-like stand made of polished wood and topped with a l]amp and shade. The meter rotates at different speeds depending on the bulb size used. They come in oak, cherry or mahogany and are impressive. Most are sold as re- tirement gifts or awards. They cost $100 each. Austin also deals in electronic boards for different uses, and they are new. The parts are farmed out for manufacture and assembled in Belmont. Because the name of the game these days is automation, the company needed a source for software, so they bought 50 per- cent of a Raleigh software com- ' pany. They use the software for testing and refurbishing equip- ment and they also sell it to util- ities. The company has one elec- tronics engineer and a part-time software specialist they can call on at any time. "We have made a connection with an engineering firm in the Philippines,” Ruth said "We found we needed to do some reengineering on some products and that's why we use them." Additionally, Ruth and Austin purchased a couple of product lines from companies with whom both were formerly employed. They also purchased a large lot of generators from Homelite at the beginning of the year. Homelite had stock- piled them as part of the widespread Y2K panic. "As time has passed,” Ruth said, "we've advanced in some areas that make us more prof- itable. Instead of buying new meter covers, we developed our own molds and now we manu- facture our own covers. We use some to refurbish meters here and we sell some to other cus- tomers." Ruth says the company is careful about the items they purchase for resale or refurbish- ment, pointing out they don't take anything containing haz- ardous materials. "We have had an OSHA in- spection," she said. "We passed with flying colors." Ruth functions as executive vice president and handles all inside sales. Austin is president. He and three other sales people travel all over the world visiting customers and seeking new op- portunities. The company has a thick ad- vertising tabloid printed and mails out 8,000 copies a month to their clientele and prospec- tive customers. They also mail colorful flyers advertising some of their products. Some of their projects bring personal satisfaction. "We ac- quired a number of used street lights," Ruth said, "and sold them to a small town in the Philippines. "The town had never been lit up at night, and when the lights were turned on, the entire town was very proud. That was nice." FIRST, HORSESHOES — Teddy Blanton (left) and Charles Hash of R.L. Stowe Mills #2 took first place in the Textile Olympics in the horseshoe event held Aug. 24 at Belmonts Davis Park. DON’T FORGET! Call to renew your subscription today! Call 739-7496 CLASSIC VALUES. For nearly a century R.L. Stowe Mills - our skilled Carolina associates and the high quality combed cotton yarn we produce - have stood for traditional values handed down from generation to generation. Hard work, craftsmanship, pride, and a time-honored belief in excellence represent standards and principles that are classic. Enduring values that connect the best of what we were to the best we can be. R.L.Stowe Mills Inc’ 100 N. Main St., Belmont, NC 28012 i 3 GS 3 _
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Oct. 26, 2000, edition 2
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