Bronze company readies to hire as many as 300

STROUD, Okla. (AP) -- A cemetery marker and sign company plans to begin the process next week of hiring as many as 300 people at a renovated facility damaged by a tornado May 3. <br><br>Superior Bronze

Thursday, April 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

STROUD, Okla. (AP) -- A cemetery marker and sign company plans to begin the process next week of hiring as many as 300 people at a renovated facility damaged by a tornado May 3.

Superior Bronze Corp. has scheduled jobs fairs Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and evenings at its plant on old Route 66 just west of town.

The company plans to hire as many as 300 within about a month and 800 in a year, said Sheldon Mitchell, the company chief executive. Superior has about 30 employees now.

The hiring announcement signals the biggest development yet that Stroud is recovering from the tornado, which sucked away as many as 600 jobs, including 350 at the Tanger Outlet Shopping Center.

"We've got plenty of jobs available, good paying jobs with plenty of benefits," Mitchell said.

Pay starts at about $8.50 an hour. The company is seeking machinists, foundry and granite workers and office and customer service employees.

Central Tech, the vocational-technical system school in Drumright, will provide job training, said Walter Cruse, Central's business management adviser.

Cruse said he anticipates Superior hiring from 200 to 300 within 60 days, but added that company could meet its projections to hire more people sooner.

"What creates those jobs is sales and based on their success in the marketplace today, I would say that's very probable," Cruse said.

Food processor Sygma occupied the plant but moved its 150 jobs to Pryor in order to restart operations quickly after the storm, which caused extensive damage to the building and Sygma's equipment.

Mitchell formed Superior in early 1999 and was looking for a manufacturing location when the storm hit Stroud. He also owns Direct Monument Corp., a Tulsa manufacturers' representative for four bronze companies Superior will compete against.

Superior bought the building earlier this year and renovated it with a $1.9 million loan backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The project symbolizes a shifting Stroud economy, one far less dependent on the $1.2 million in annual sales taxes generated at the mall, local officials said.

Stroud Mayor Joe Hankins said if Superior hurries he believes as many as 60 percent of the initial jobs can be filled from the local work force.

Many local residents scrambled for available jobs after the storm. Some now commute 90 miles daily to jobs in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Hankins said.

Superior has already taken several hundred applications, including ones from people in Chandler, Shawnee, Muskogee, Cushing and Davenport, Mitchell said.

The company is also participating in Oklahoma's Quality Jobs program, which gives employers a rebate of up to 5 percent of new payroll as an incentive to expand.

The company's site includes 13 acres and has a 100,000-square-foot building, Mitchell said. Foundation work has begun on a 50,000-square-foot building, and the company has a rail spur off the Stillwater line.

Mitchell said the preparations and hiring should enable the company to meet any production demands in a field dominated by a few giants, including Service Corporation International, which also provides caskets and other funeral services and had 1999 sales of $3.3 billion.

And memorial prices are also high, Mitchell said, giving the company a chance to undercut its competitors.

Superior also makes bronze and granite architectural signs, he said.

"It's a multibillion dollar business," Mitchell said. "We're going to make Stroud the bronze and granite capital."