By T.W. Burger
SHIPPENSBURG >> As ribbon-cuttings go, it was pretty dramatic.
On Monday, officials ranging from Franklin County and Washington lawmakers, the Swedish Ambassador to the United States, and high-level Volvo management officially opened their new North American Customer Center at their Shippensburg manufacturing site.
Well, not exactly a “ribbon” cutting.
A gathering of local, state, federal and Swedish officials lent an international air to the Monday ribbon-cutting ceremony at Volvo's North American Customer Center in Shippensburg. (Submitted)
One of Volvo’s smaller construction vehicles shouldered its way between a row of bigwigs and snipped through a thick, bright red chain with something that looked like the business end of a very large snapping turtle, but made of heavy steel.
The 20,000 square-foot facility will host customers who come to compare Volvo equipment to others, and even test-drive vehicles such as front-end loaders, road graders and excavators on Volvo’s own test track, complete with steep grades and plenty of gravel and sand to move around.
Attending the event were U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9; U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11; U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-4; Volvo Construction Equipment Americas President Göran Lindgren; Swedish Ambassador to the United States Björn Lyrvall; state Sen. Richard Alloway, R-Chambersburg; state Rep. Rob Kauffman, R-Chambersburg; and other dignitaries.
Lindgren said the event marked the realization of Volvo CE’s $100 million investment in its local facilities. That project had been announced in 2001.
“Eventually, 70 percent of what we sell will be coming out of the (Shippensburg) facility,” he said in a press conference for the trade press just after the ribbon cutting.
He predicted 8,000 customers and 11,000 sales and technical students will be using the center annually. He quipped that although a Marriott is under construction not far away, “we might be needing more motels in the area.”
Ambassador Lyrvall said his country intends to do more toward getting Swedish companies to bring jobs to the U.S.
“Today’s event is a testimony to the fact that Swedish companies create over 330,000 jobs in America,” he said, adding that 14,000 of those jobs are in Pennsylvania.
Lindgren had said Volvo has 1,000 employees in Shippensburg, and 14,000 across the U.S.
After the speeches, Volvo employees operated a swarm of construction vehicles from the passenger car size to the truly enormous, ripping around a paved area demonstrating their abilities while driving around in complex patterns. Think of it as a sort of construction-grade ballet.
Volvo purchased the former Ingersoll-Rand site in 2007, and subsequently consolidated its American operations in Shippensburg, which included moving the Americas Sales Headquarters from North Carolina to Pennsylvania and localizing machine production in Shippensburg.