Salem company has big plans

The company expects increasing demand for its trailers.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- A company with a modern product is expected to be the city's biggest employer in five years.
Tracy Drake, chief executive officer for the Columbiana County Port Authority, made that prediction Tuesday when MAC Trailer Manufacturing had a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its new facility on Allen Road near the city's industrial park.
Drake said the Salem plant could employ about 400 people by 2011, although several companies in Columbiana County employ more than 500.
Michael A. Conny, MAC's president, started the company in 1993, fixing wrecked trailers in a one-bay garage in Alliance. About 450 workers are employed at the company's facility in Alliance.
"I really enjoy working on trailers," Conny said.
After eight expansions over 10 years in Alliance, he needed more room but didn't want a building in Salem, Conny said. But Salem and Columbiana County officials showed him the 200,000-square-foot building that had belonged to Crane-Deming Co.
Conny said that after walking into the facility, "it took us about a minute" to decide to buy it. The company bought 38 acres, including the five on which the building sits, Conny said. The port authority helped get loans at a reduced rate for the company.
The company began operating in Salem in February after receiving an order for 200 trailers. MAC's Salem facility had 110 employees several weeks ago and 135 a few days ago, Drake said.
Expanding market
Conny said the trailers will help keep up with the demand for moving products by trucks that is expected to double to 12 billion tons per year by 2012.
MAC's trailers are a combination of aluminum and steel. The aluminum trailers are lighter than steel ones -- which saves on fuel costs -- won't rust and don't need to be painted.
MAC has four lines: flatbed and dump truck bodies, straight truck bodies and transfer trailers.
MAC officials say the Salem facility can make up to 50 trailers a week.
Gone are the days when workers would have to climb over or under a trailer to weld it. The Salem plant has a machine with metal bands that hold each end and the center of the trailer under construction. The machine can quickly rotate the trailer by 360 degrees if needed to speed construction.
Conny also said that the trailers have several innovations he doesn't want to discuss.
The company has says it has precisely 66.7 percent of the trailer business in Kentucky and West Virginia because its products have a reputation for being the strongest on the market.