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closePATTON TOWNSHIP — Inside the offices of Glenn O. Hawbaker on Waddle Road, a wall-mounted television displays all of the facilities the private business operates — including one new one.
CDT photos/Nabil K. Mark
Brian Renaud, left, and Joel Grannas work on Web sites for different school districts at Schoolwires in College Township last week. The company is pursuing a “real opportunity to expand rapidly,” said founder Ed Marflak, which includes hiring an additional 60 employees and finding more office space. “It’s an exciting challenge,” he said, of the company’s plans to grow during the recession.
At the Schoolwires headquarters on Rolling Ridge Drive in College Township, desks and computers are packed into whatever space is available on several floors, the office nearly bursting at the seams.
And in Altoona, interviews are under way for the new kid on the block, a company that has moved into a former school and turned it into a state-of-the-art call center.
Hidden behind the news of layoffs, shutdowns and closures, a small number of companies are expanding, growing and — dare it be said — hiring.
“Even though a lot of these companies are struggling, there are those that I think do benefit from the current economy,” said Terrance Guay, an associate professor with the Smeal College of Business at Penn State. “It’s definitely not the case where every company is hurting ... there’s a silver lining for somebody somewhere.”
The silver lining is easy to miss amid headlines of rising unemployment and other economic problems.
Over the last 11 months, the unemployment rate for Centre County has crept up from 3.9 percent in April 2008 to 5.6 percent in March.
It’s a far cry from the double-digit unemployment seen during the recession of the early 1980s, but job losses across the nation have continued to expand the ranks of the unemployed. Some counties in Pennsylvania are seeing unemployment rates of 12 or 13 percent, and the rate nationally is expected to top 10 percent before it shows signs of recovery.
The signs are seen in other ways. A recent job fair in Allentown drew close to 3,000 job seekers, about a third more than in previous years.
About 230 people stopped at a career fair at the CareerLink offices on the Benner Pike last month to drop off resumes and fill out applications.
But while most traditional industries may be feeling the brunt of the market’s contraction, a few are seeing increasing demands for services, or are anticipating growth as federal stimulus dollars trickle into the commonwealth.
“We’re actually thriving because the type of business we are in,” said Craig Blitz.
Blitz is a regional manager for NEW Corp., a telecommunications company that recently moved into Altoona.
NEW provides services for extended warranties, troubleshooting and other telecom needs. As the recession has continued and more consumers are trying to lengthen the life of their purchases, the company’s phones have been busy, he said.
By the end of 2009, the company is looking to have hired 200 or more people
from the area. It plans to expand its work force to 450 by the end of 2010, he said.
And although the bulk of the new hires will come from the Altoona area, the firm is also looking toward State College.
Interstate 99, said Blitz, has opened up a different job pool for the company — a highly educated work force — and was part of what attracted it to the region.
“The area actually had a very huge talent pool for the types of hire needs we were looking for,” he said.
Another support-services firm, this one based in State College, is also looking to add to its ranks in the coming year. Nine years ago, a small firm
named Schoolwires opened an office at the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County’s business incubator. Its focus was on providing Web site design and services for school districts.
At the same time that the local firm was finding its feet, the information technology sector was reeling in the midst of the dot-com crash.
Founder Ed Marflak said the first two years of operation “really tested our mettle.”
The small firm has thrived and in recent years has consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies in the nation.
And at the end of last year, the company saw a “real opportunity to expand rapidly,” Marflak said, a chance to “really scale the business up.”
After securing $12 million in outside investment, the company is moving forward with its expansion plans, which involve hiring an additional 60 employees this year and finding more office space.
“This kind of growth doesn’t happen by accident,” said Marflak. He said the company has placed an emphasis on market research, trying to stay ahead of the trends.
He admitted that, at the beginning of the year, the company was “concerned with all the turbulence in the broader economy.” So it tried to find ways to capitalize on that turbulence.
It evolved its marketing, presenting itself as an efficient solution for school districts, at a time when some districts are struggling with budget constraints.
That has contributed, Marflak said, to stronger than expected sales in 2009.
“It’s an exciting challenge,” he said, as the company looks to grow its customer support and sales divisions.
The service sector is not the only area where possibilities for growth exist in today’s economy.
At the end of the Great Depression, the nation went on a road building spree, constructing thousands of new roads and bridges.
Now, those bridges are starting to show their age.
“They’re at the end of their life expectancy,” said Charles Campbell, with Glenn O. Hawbaker Inc.
As part of the federal stimulus package, the Obama administration has targeted million of dollars toward infrastructure improvements. And in Pennsylvania, that means bridges.
Hawbaker, already one of the leading heavy construction firms in Pennsylvania, saw an opportunity and recently acquired Schuylkill Products, based in Cressona.
Now operating under the name of Northeast Prestressed Products, the company produces a variety of concrete products, including bridge beams.
Campbell said the acquisition was made after Hawbaker took a “long-term strategic look” at the construction market.
Part of that strategic look included looking for industry trends. With the state Department of Transportation’s mile-long list of deficient bridges, it was not too difficult to see where the state will likely be targeting infrastructure dollars in the years to come.
“We think that business has a bright future and we think it is quite compatible with what we do here,” said Campbell. “Long-term and short-term, we think that it should be a good, successful business.”
Nick Malawskey can be reached at 235-3928.
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