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Grants Pass likely to profit along with cabinet firm The Associated Press GRANTS PASS -- New jobs -- lots of new jobs -- may soon be coming to Josephine County, courtesy of a growing cabinet manufacturer. Schrock Cabinets, which now employes 250, could have as many as 600 employees by the end of the plant's expansion between now and 2004, according to company projections. Only public entities such as Josephine County and the nonprofit Three Rivers Community Hospital would employ more people. The company is set to complete a 43,000-square-foot building at its plant this summer, allowing for additional manufacturing, according to Ernie Gibson, Schrock operations manager for Oregon. "This will get us into a higher quality line of cabinets and we can be a little more proud of what we build," Gibson said. "This will give us the ability to go from building 1,100 to 1,500 cabinets a day." That is just the beginning. Gibson said Schrock is set to buy additional land to expand the plant even further. He said the three- to five-year goal is to have an output of 3,000 cabinets a day and add 350 employees. Gibson added that the firm will not add employees until after the $1.5 million building is constructed next year. The company's expansion plan is welcome news for the local economy. A little more than two years ago, Schrock was on the ropes and was considering closing its plant in Grants Pass. Cabinet production had slipped from 1,350 a day to 350. The company's payroll had dropped from a high of 300 employees to just 132 workers. But Gibson never gave up. As manager of the Grants Pass plant, he rolled up his sleeves, pushed for local tax breaks to improve the plant and reorganized and retooled the facility. The plant shifted to a "just in time" philosophy, which means that cabinets are built to order and put right into delivery trucks instead of being stockpiled. The Grants Pass City Council approved an enterprise zone that included the Schrock facility. That gave the company property tax breaks over a three-to five-year period in exchange for expanding the operation and creating new jobs. The hard work of employees, tax incentives and sale of the local facility to a new and supportive parent company have all combined to bring the company back from the brink. "Far as picking a new owner goes, we could not have done better," Gibson said. "I love to see good things happen in my hometown and to be a part of it." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA