Sunday, July 29, 2007
Orvis still happy it chose Roanoke
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Fly fishing is a quiet sport, so maybe it is fitting that the country's largest fly fishing company noted a major milestone without a bunch of fanfare.
Thursday morning at an employee lunch picnic, Orvis celebrated the 20th anniversary of opening its distribution operation in Roanoke.
Roanoke city councilman Bev Fitzpatrick was on hand to present top Orvis executives Perk and Dave Perkins with a key to the city and a silver replica of the Mill Mountain Star, respectively.
But unless you worked for Orvis or were on a short guest list, you had no idea the event was going on.
In fact, there's a reasonable chance you don't even know the operation exists. And even if you do, you might not understand just how big it is.
And it is massive.
Company officials say Orvis is projected to do about $335 million in business this year. A big chunk of the merchandise responsible for that hefty figure will flow through Roanoke, where roughly 575 employees work in a facility that covers 335,000 square feet.
Inside the buildings, shelves filled with merchandise tower 50 and 60 feet overhead.
Offices are filled with dozens of customer service representatives taking phone orders, processing Internet orders, and answering customer questions over the phone and through Internet chats.
So how do you keep an operation whose footprint is the size of seven football fields quiet?
For one thing, you tuck it into the rolling hills of eastern Roanoke County, about a half-mile north of Route 460. The only way you'll see it is if you are on Blue Hills Drive or are flying over the valley.
It also helps when you're a good corporate citizen who doesn't make headlines for mistakes and problems.
There's nothing wrong with quietly and efficiently doing business, but Mike Rigney, the facility's director of operations, said he's looking to beef up the company's public profile in the Roanoke Valley and beyond.
One of his reasons is pretty simple: He's looking for good people to join the team.
The more people who know about the place, Rigney believes, the more will be attracted to the potential of working somewhere where the outdoors isn't just a business, but a lifestyle.
Recruiting challenges helped get the distribution center to Roanoke in the first place, said the Perkins brothers, now the head men in the company their father, Leigh, bought back in 1965.
"We were in a labor crisis," said Perk Perkins, the company's president and CEO.
With a population of barely 3,000, tiny Manchester, Vt., where Charles F. Orvis founded the company in 1856, just couldn't support the company's needs for its distribution operation, which serves private customers and keeps retail stores stocked.
"During the holiday season, everyone who came in and filled out an application got a job," Perkins added.
After concluding that the company had no choice but to relocate its distribution operation, the search began for a location.
The mid-Atlantic region made sense because of a fit with UPS shipping zones.
The company settled on Roanoke, which also had the advantage of proximity to good nearby fly-fishing waters such as the James and Smith rivers, which the Perkins men and other company leaders would sometimes find time to visit during their visits from Manchester -- still home to the Orvis headquarters and its rod-manufacturing operation.
While the move made financial sense, it wasn't totally smooth.
Given the opportunity to start the distribution operation with a "clean slate," that's what Orvis did and that created some operational challenges.
The Perkins brothers also admitted there was some anxiety about, of all things, the accents of the customer service representatives.
"We were worried about it," said CFO Dave Perkins with a chuckle. "We were a New England company."
The worry turned out to be unnecessary.
The employees from Roanoke were extremely courteous and friendly, with great attitudes.
"Yankees aren't all that friendly," Perkins added, still laughing.
Now, as Orvis tries to increase its profile in Roanoke and Virginia, the effort will center on a subject that also is not surprising for a fly fishing company: conservation.
Rigney and the Perkins brothers said Orvis has been discussing ideas with officials from the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries regarding potential projects.
"We're looking for the right project to get behind," Perk Perkins said.
It's a smart move, one that will help them build on their role as an important member of the Roanoke Valley community, and not simply an important tenant.
