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5 i Cs a2, oes Rowe AS A "Rey or ERR WN Ne - Pe aa ere 8 -- PORT PERRY STAR -- Wednesday, Nov. 16, 1977 When Andrew Antenna Company Ltd. first started manufacturing at its Whitby plant 23 years ago, the com- pany was doing about $100,000 worth of business each year in Canada. In the fiscal year which ends October 1, 1978, the company expects to do $10 million worth of business, with about 70 percent of the sales inside Canada. Since 1954, the Whitby plant which sits on 13 acres has undergone expansions in 1961 and 1966. And just _over a year ago, a major { expansion took place with the construction of a 65,000 square foot cable manufac- turing plant on a 215 acre parcel of land northwest of the tiny hamlet of Ashburn. The Ashburn expansion, which includes a second 6,000 square foot plant al- ready completed for the manufacture of large radar antennas, is the initial phase of a plan which will eventually see the entire company operation move to Ashburn. Company president Richard Matthews antici- pates that the move will be "completed in the next ten years, and the companys will have some 200,000 square feet of manufacturing space at Ashburn, employing 300 people. WHY ASHBURN The Ashburn land was assembled in 1968, and the prime factor in the decision to move out of the dense industrial area to the com- paratively wide open spaces ¢ was a specific need the company has to test the dish-shaped telecommuni- cations antennas which it manufactures. ' This company required open space without hydro lines or other. buildings to get in the way of the elec- tronic wave patterns used in the testing procedures. The land necessary to meet this specific need simply wasn't available in the heavily industrialized areas, and even if it was available, the cost would have been prohibitive. A second factor in the selection of the Ashburn site was the proximity to a rail- way line, and when the ex- pansion is completed a spur line will be punched through to service the plants. SATISFACTORY The cable manufacturing operation got underway at the new Ashburn plant in January of this year, and it has proved to be very effi- cient. -There are about 20 employees there now, turn- ing out 10,000 feet of trans- mission cable every day. In fact, the Ashburn plant now produces as much cable in one shift, as was turned out in the crowded Whitby plant in two shifts. The move has not been disruptive as far as the employees are concerned. They commute to Ashburn from as far away as Bow- manville, and there were no resignations because of the relocation. The Whitby plant now manufactures micro-wave and earth station antennas, dehydrating equipment for pressurizing transmission lines, and VOR antennas used as navigational _aids for aircraft. About 30 per- cent of the employees are technicians and engineers, and almost all of the re- mainder of the production staff would be classified as skilled labour. Although the final reloca- tion to Ashburn is still seven years away, Mr. Matthews does not anticipate any major problems as far as the production employees are concerned. However, he does say that some of the - women working in the ad- ministrative offices may be reluctant to move because it could mean having to buy a second car and commuting from their homes in Whitby. The re-zoning of the Ash- burn site was carried out without any problems. The plan has its own sanitary septic system and well. Although considerable water is used as a coolant in the manufacture of the transmission cable, the water is re-cycled. Before re-locating the company did extensive testing of water tables in the area to ensure that the operation would not jeopardize the water supply to surrounding farms. A nine-foot deep reservoir has been constructed to supply 'that plant's sprinkling system. The grounds im- mediately aroun#t the cable plant have been landscaped and the company is planting shrubs and rows of trees. The plant itself has an attractive exterior and sits well back from existing roadways. The Ashburn site would seem to be a good example of how a com- pany can use land in. non- industrialized areas to fill a specific need, and then expand to integrate the en- pA vi ¢ A a LFA | RRATY EL RE TOR Rt £2. he { US rads PU 4 34 PREMERA Y TR 37 Fo ~ Andrew Antenna.....not just TV towers P "This communications tower in a field just north of the Ashburn cable plant is used by Andrew Antenna to test electronic equipment. The need of open space for equipment testing was one of the reasons why Andrew is moving its tire operation. GOOD CITIZEN Me Matthews says the company works to project an image of being a good corporate citizen. He adds that employee relations are good, and some 40 percent of these now working have been with the company more than ten years. All employees, including the maintenance staff, are on salary, and time clocks are used only for cost control purposes. Andrew Antenna is a division of Andrew Corpor- ation, a privately owned company with head offices near Chicago. The com- pany also has plants in Cali- fornia, Australia, Scotland and Brazil. The major customers for the company's products in- clude General Electric, Northern Telecom, Phillips and Motorola, and the users include the telephone com- panies, public utilities like Ontario Hydro, CP-CN Tele- communications, and the Canadian Broadcastin Corporation. ' Mr. Matthews says the market for telecommunica- tions systems has been bouyant in the last few years, despite slowdowns in other sectors of the Cana- dian economy. The com- pany is part of an Ottawa- based consortium called Elinca Communications, manufacturing operations from Whitby to Ashburn. which is currently in the final stages of working out an agreement to supply + telephone communications equipment to five nations in West Africa. - 3. 4, A) x + Technician at the: Whithy plant checks blueprint drawings. 4