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Show Coleman Co. Officials Visit Cedar Plant, Study Expansion Possibilities "It is logical that, in time, the Cedar City plant will be a eon-ender eon-ender for expansion should "olenan company establish ad-litimial ad-litimial outim; products or should there be a need on the market Tor more canvas production." j So stated Sheldon Coleman, ; president and chairman of the ; board of directors of ;ho Cole-; Cole-; many Company, Inc. in remarks at a meeting of the Cedar City Chamber of Commerce held Mon- day noon at Sullivan's El Rcy Cafe. ; v'oleman, and other members of the board of directors of the company were in Cedar City i "for the purpose of becoming better acquainted with the areaj the comunity and plant facili- ' iiiiii ! ii. V-rw, ..- iii in pp.iyyBp.il II i in i V" I"''- il !ilL CL S DISCUSS COLEMAN OPERATION. Milt Jolley, Howard Thorlcy, president of the Chamber of Commerce; Sheldon Coleman, president of Coleman Co., Albert O. Beyer, vice president of Coleman, and Elden Yer-gensen, Yer-gensen, chairman of the Industrial Development Devel-opment Corporation, discuss plans at meet Monday and Tuesday. ties" that were purchased by the company from Canvas Specialty Manufacturing Co., effective I August 1. Coleman, indicated in his remarks re-marks that ve company expected expect-ed to continue to operate the Cedar Ce-dar City plant with the same type of operation and policy that has been established by Canvas Specialties, with hopes of future expansion. He indicated that with Coleman's greater sales power throughout the country, the prospects pros-pects for future expansion look good and that in the outdoor recreation rec-reation area, particularly in the West, there is a growing market for products of this kind. The president of Coleman Co did however, indicate that two problems needed to be solved before be-fore large expansion could be considered. Problem Aired First of the two problems was the matter of training adequate skilled labor and he indicated that with the school system and college In Cedar City this problem prob-lem could be solved . Second and of more concern was that of freight rates from Cedar City. Coleman suggested that this is a problem that needs not only the work of Coleman Company but of Cedar City and Utah, indicating that freight rates could hamper, on the present pres-ent basis, the Industrial growth of the entire southern Utah area. He cited an example that freight from Los Angeles, CalLt., to Salt Lake City could be shipped ship-ped at a lower cost than from Cedar City to Salt Lake City. "Potentially we hope to tap markets mar-kets with products from the Cedar Ce-dar City plant as far east as Chicago and Houston, Texas, as well as the 11 western states served previously by Canvas i Specialties Co. At the present .time, he said, freight rates from .Cedar City would make it ver-tually ver-tually impossible to market products pro-ducts from Cedar City in Houston. Hous-ton. A "Contractor for Expansion" "What can be expected by Coleman regarding products beyond be-yond sleeping bags?" The president presi-dent of the company asked that question and answered it by stating that no plans are now formulated 'oi auuiliuuai products pro-ducts as of this time, but then indicated that the facility should be a contender for additional projects, sometime in the future. He specfically indicated that by the term "in time" he did not necessarily mean next week, next month or even next year, for that matter. Albert O. Boyer, vice president and general manager of the Outing Out-ing Products division of Coleman Co., was also in attendance at the meeting. He explained a program pro-gram that is currently operating in the company's headquarters at Wichita, Kansas. He referred to it as the buddy system, whereby where-by Coleman Company offering a job opportunity to boys In college. col-lege. They in turn have the responsibility re-sponsibility between them to maintain that job oportunity. The company has also maintained main-tained a policy of hiring college students during the summer vacation va-cation season when regular employees em-ployees are on vacation and during peak production periods. He suggested that similar programs pro-grams could be arranged in Cedar Ce-dar City in connection with the College of Southern Utah. History of Company Coleman also traced briefly the history of the Coleman Company Com-pany which was established at the turn of the century by his father W. C. Coleman. He also indicated some of the primary concepts the founder of Coleman left, such as a philosophy that "no product is really sold until it is giving satisfactory service to the user," and "Every Coleman product is the best of its kind not necessarily the most expensive, expen-sive, but the best." Monday forenoon representatives representa-tives of the company met with i Iron County Commissioners and I during the afternoon the group were taken on a tour of the school and other highlights of the comunity. ! Tuesday officals were In a business session at the Coleman plant and Tuesday afternoon a i toil r of Cedar Mountain was enjoy en-joy ed, capped by a steak fry at 'the CSU ranch. |
