Saturday, September 26, 1998

Activity at old Merchants building happening again

by Doug Williamson / Business Editor

The former headquarters and dock terminal of Merchants Inc. is beginning to see traffic again.

Coastal Transport Co. Inc. has purchased the facilities from the bankruptcy court.

Now housed on East Highway 80 are Coastal's tank-truck operation and Conway Southern Express' freight business.

Jerry Matthews and Ron Bredemeyer, both former executives with Merchants, worked with Coastal owner Rich Atwell to put the deal together. As soon as Coastal bought the property, it sold the dock and terminal facility to Conway.

Matthews is Coastal's senior executive vice president, and Bredemeyer is vice president of equipment and property.

The two companies will employ more than 200 people, a number comparable to the pre-bankruptcy Merchants' work force, officials said.

Coastal is a 56-year-old Texas-based business that specializes in hauling petroleum products.

Training is the key

Some companies find it hard to set aside time for training.

That's a pretty obvious statement, but Eagle Aviation Services Inc. harvested the fruit from its work.

The Federal Aviation Administration this week honored the company and 169 of its employees for their dedication to training.

Blair Gregg, vice president for EASI's local maintenance operation, said the company in the last year has conducted 71 training classes and employees have spent 16,251 hours in them.

"That means that we spent 6 percent of our paid manhours in training," Gregg said.

If those workhours had been used for maintaining planes from other airlines, one EASI official said, they would have amounted to more than $500,000 in revenue.

Almost 13,000 of those hours came in preparing employees for the company's latest contract on American Eagle's new commuter jets, the Embraer RJ-145s, he said.

EASI was given the "Diamond Award" for having 25 percent or more of its employees earning Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards.

1998 home sales still up

Sales of homes listed with the Multiple Listing Service are still well above last year.

During August, both the number of homes sold and the total value of those properties were down from August 1997. Last month saw 116 homes sold for $8.3 million.

Still, the 977 homes sold year-to-date is a 19-percent rise over the first eight months of 1997. The $66 million in total value is a 13-percent increase.

Doug Williamson can be reached at 676-6707 or williamsond@abinews.com.