Although I’ve been with ERA Advantage Realty for over 3 years, the bulk of my professional career – over 16 years – was in manufacturing management. My journey to West Virginia actually had its origin at a furniture factory located in Chula Vista, California.
The year was 1990 and I was Quality Assurance Director for Pacific Tambour, Inc. We were experiencing growing pains. From a 30-person operation in 1987 we had grown in three years to a company employing nearly 140 people on two shifts, building oak office furniture for Sam’s Club, Price Club, Office Mart and other “big box” retailers.
We were running at peak capacity, so the owners began to consider opening a plant somewhere east of the Mississippi to handle orders from that part of the country. It made sense to split the business in two, but at the same time we were concerned about the quality of the potential workforce. Read the rest of this entry »