LONGWOOD INDUSTRIES SURVIVES BY BEING FLEXIBLE
by John Barnhart
Agility is Longwood Industries’ key to survival, according to Renee Fisher, Longwood’s executive director. Fisher has served in that post since 1976.
Fisher said that Longwood was incorporated in 1972, one of 40 sheltered workshops that were set up after Virginia deinstitutionalized people in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s.
“It started in the basement of Bob Johnson’s building on Jackson Street,” Fisher said.
Longwood originally acted as a subcontractor but it was clear, by the time Fisher took the director’s job in 1976, that the effort needed a new direction.
“It was bankrupt when I came,” she said.
Fisher decided to manufacture products and the first sale consisted of dish cloths.
The organization built its current building on Longwood Avenue Extension in 1982 with a federal Community Development Block Grant. It was a three-year, $1.5 million grant and $500,000 was used to build the building. The city used the rest for sewers and sidewalks in that neighborhood. Fisher said that Bedford had tried to get this block grant previously but was finally successful because the sheltered workshop’s involvement boosted the project’s point value.
“That [the construction of the new building] allowed us to secure larger contracts,” said Fisher.
Longwood got contracts through NISH, a clearing house for large government contracts.
“We were able to bid and secure the coin bag contract with the Department of the Treasury,” Fisher said.
This contract was worth $2 million per year and allowed Longwood to employ 125 people on two shifts.
It also expanded the building, using a Small Business Administration loan for one expansion and paying cash for another.
Longwood also did subcontracting work for Rubatex. The workers made gaskets for Chrysler and for the Alaskan Pipeline.
Then, the situations changed. Rubatex closed.
Then the Department of the Treasury quit using coin bags. Fisher was planning to bid on the boxes that the Treasury was switching to, but then found that the company that developed the box had a patent on it. Longwood lost the bid. Furthermore NISH no longer served as a, good source of contracts. It had changed so that blind workshops were now first in line, ahead of sheltered workshops like Longwood, for contracts through NISH. Longwood needed to look elsewhere.
Since then, Longwood has done a variety of work. Once the organization had a contract to package pig ears. It also got a contract with Bedford County to make the new road signs required by the new 911 system, which required street names for all roads in the county. The county provided the machines and material. Longwood workers also did the city’s way-finding signs.
Last year, the county put its road sign business out to bid, and the bidder would have to supply the material. This would be fine for a company that has a lot of sign-making contracts, but the costs were too much for Longwood. The organization sold the sign shop at the end of last year.
Meanwhile, Longwood bought an embroidering company and still operates an embroidery business. It also got a contract with CINTAS. CINTAS was throwing thousands of bent metal clothes hangers away each month because they would hang up in the company’s automated equipment. Longwood can economically straighten most of these for reuse. This saves CINTAS money and keeps them out of the landfill.
Longwood also found a niche with the ham and peanut industry. Bags similar to the bags they used to make for the Treasury are used by companies that market peanuts, as well as Virginia-style hams.
“We did not have to buy a single piece of equipment,” said Fisher. “Last June, we secured the Smithfield account. Smithfield is the largest manufacturer of ham products in the world.”
Some of Longwood’s ham bags are exported. It has one customer in Portugal and the bags are printed in Portuguese.
Along with ham and peanut bags, Longwood also filled a contract with Southern States for 15,000 seed bags.
Longwood Industries is a 501 (c) non-profit organization, but does not do fundraising or rely on charitable contributions.
“We would rather have the opportunity to bid on a project and have it awarded fairly,” Fisher said. “We don’t ask for handouts, we earn it.”
Longwood provides work for people with disabilities. Some of the more severely disabled have come out of institutions. Some people who work there, however, are not disabled. Fisher said that this helps disabled people who come there to be better prepared to function in the workplace by working in an actual business. Earning a paycheck also improves their self-esteem.
They have a rehabilitation department and one of this department’s jobs is to find out what each individual is good at and match them with a job. Fisher said there is a wide array of jobs. Longwood also has a transportation system to get workers to and from work.
Longwood currently has 77 workers.
“These people don’t miss work,” said Fisher, “They are good, excellent employees.”
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