Volume 3  Issue 1 February 12, 2007

Command Center in a Box

Ashland-based Spec Ops builds ultra-mobile operations centers that DoD and Homeland Security can deploy into the field at a moment’s notice.

By Peter Galuszka

Soon after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, paratroopers from the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division found themselves sloshing around the flooded streets of New Orleans. The soldiers had trouble coordinating their rescue and security work because power failures had cut all telephone service. The ravaged city was very much like a war zone--and that gave them an idea.

Not long before, the 82nd had purchased battle management hardware from Spec Ops Inc., a Hanover County, Va., company that makes mobile operations centers. Spec Ops gear is ideal for the airborne division, a quick-reaction force that can be airdropped anywhere at a moment’s notice.

The paratroopers contacted Spec Ops with a special request: They needed one of Spec Op’s mobile operations centers. Responding immediately, Paul Garner, the firm’s president, dropped the mobile unit into the back of a white truck. He and his wife drove all night to New Orleans where the 82nd had set up shop at the Louis Armstrong International Airport. “I’ve never seen devastation on that scale,” says Garner, who ended up staying in New Orleans for three days. “It was every single block after block.”

The firm has supplied more than 25,000 pieces of hardware including small Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs), which are mobile briefing rooms replete with communications tools and Liquid Crystal Display screens. More.

Hidden Asset

The ongoing voyage of the Port of Richmond.

by Chip Jones

Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Maybe you've noticed them as you drive north on Interstate 95 toward downtown Richmond: Big metal boxes -- some orange, some blue -- stacked neatly near the highway. The containers rise up like some kind of temporary housing, or perhaps a huge self-storage center.
 

Actually, the roadside attraction is on the grounds of the Port of Richmond, a transportation hub the size of which is hard to fully absorb when you're whipping by at 60 mph. The high-rising containers are a sign of growth as the city-owned port attracts new shipments and finds ways to leverage its strategic position along the James River.
 

The South Richmond facility even has its own rail line, the 4.5-mile-long Deepwater Terminal Railroad, which is used by many companies in the interstate industrial corridor.
 

"Who does know it's there?" John Smith, chairman of the facility's marketing committee, asked rhetorically of the facility that opened shortly before the start of World War II. "It's clearly a hidden asset."

Gazing up at the container stacks, the port's executive director, Martin J. Moynihan joked, "I'm calling this the port condominiums now." More.

Richmond Airport Takes Off

As Richmond International Airport nears completion of its $46.8 million expansion, airline passengers find a “brighter more elegant” design.  

The newly renovated Richmond International Airport wins praise from Edwin Slipek Jr., the architectural critic for Style Weekly. As the expansion nears completion, the airport provides excellent functionality and flow. Although the design is conservative, he says, it does offer a number of “wow” moments.

“There is a striking and elegant new front facade that makes being dropped off a pleasure visually,” Slipek writes. “Airline ticket counters now occupy a brightly lit terminal lobby whose ceilings soar 60 feet high.”  

“The roofline of the terminal climbs to 60 feet … and suggests the wings of a jet airplane. Just below this is a more pedestrian-scaled clear glass canopy that runs the length of the building to protect travelers. It can already be considered one of the most beautiful contemporary architectural features in the area. The canopy appears to be supported by a colonnade of eight asymmetrically-shaped columns that mark multiple entryways into the terminal.” (November 22, 2006) More. 

NEWS

xpdex Richmond Moves into New Offices. xpdex, a marketer and distributor of printing papers and graphic supplies and equipment, has moved its 54 Richmond division employees into a new 65,000 square foot, ‘high cube’ facility located in the Northlake Business Park in Hanover County. The new offices, which include 24 dock doors in the warehouse, serves metro Richmond and communities from the west-central region of Virginia to the east Northern neck of the state. xpdex also recently acquired a new fleet of seven highly fuel-efficient trucks that operate from the facility. (October 9, 2006) More.

Pirate Capital Urges Brinks Sale. Pirate Capital, an activist hedge fund, has suggested that a sale of the Brinks Co., a global provider of security and risk management services, would attract interest from other companies that could bolster its market share. Pirate contends that the stock price doesn’t reflect the value of Brink's two leading security businesses. (January 8, 2007) More. 

Ethyl Initiates Arbitration. Ethyl Corporation, owned by NewMarket Corporation, has started legal proceedings against a subsidiary of Innospec, Inc. for allegedly violating a supply agreement and over- charging Ethyl for the U.S. sale of tetraethyl lead. (October 5, 2006) More.

Owens & Minor and Broadlane Renew Partnership. Owens & Minor has extended its partnership with Broadlane, a medical/surgical distribution service, for another five years. (September 27, 2006) More.

McKesson Acquisition Finalized. Owens & Minor has completed its acquisition of McKesson’s medical surgical unit following a successful federal regulatory review for approximately $165 million. There will be a six-month transition period and anticipated annual revenue expects to be in the range of $800 million. (October 2, 2006) More.

Riverside Cuts Deal with Compass. Riverside Logistics has secured an additional 40,000 square feet of warehousing space to provide warehousing and storage of telecom industry cables and construction materials for Compass Technologies and other business. (December 11, 2006) More.

Hamilton Beach Secures Tariff Breaks. Hamilton Beach/Proctor- Silex Inc., a manufacturer of small kitchen appliances, has secured tax breaks on the purchase of finished products from its suppliers in China, potentially worth several million dollars. (December 22, 2006) More.

Shippers Commonwealth Heads South. Shippers Commonwealth, a developer of automated transportation management systems, has opened corporate offices in Charleston SC. The company will maintain a customer support center in Midlothian. (November 22, 2006) More.

Shippers Lands New Customers. Shippers Commonwealth has landed Associated Wholesale Grocers, Bon Ton Stores and Garden Ridge Home Décor Super Centers as customers for its Transportation Management Systems (TMS) including its marquee products, Vendor Logistics Portal and Web Gateway Solution. (October, 2006) More.                

Advanous Rolls Out Analytic Tool. Advanous has introduced MarginGenerator, a web-based analytic service for small and medium-sized companies that uses sales history data to improve sales and profits by identifying key customer, product and market trends.(November 29, 2006) More.

Jungheinrich Steps Up Spare Parts Delivery. The Jungheinrich Lift Truck Corp. has announced a move of its spare parts distribution to a new 17,000 sq. ft. warehouse in Richmond. The company has invested $1 million and increased its inventory to 8,000 spare parts. (September, 27, 2006) More…

Jungheinrich Partners With GNB IndustrialPower. The Jungheinrich Lift Truck Corp. has signed an agreement with the GNB Industrial Power division of Exide Technologies to be the primary supplier of batteries for Jungheinrich lift trucks sold in North America. (November, 2006) More. 

Traffic Soars at RIC. Traveler traffic at Richmond International Airport has surpassed three million passengers for the first time in a calendar year, according to airport officials. In 2006, RIC serviced a record-breaking 3.3 million travelers, a 13.5 percent increase over 2005. More.