Riddleberger Set To Expand Shop

VIC BRADSHAW
PUBLICATION: Daily News-Record (Harrisonburg, VA)

SECTION: News (Local)

DATE: July 6, 2016

MOUNT CRAWFORD — Riddleberger Brothers Inc. needs a bigger home after taking on work from an affiliated company and moving some of its own job-site work in-house.

Daniel Blosser, Riddleberger’s president and CEO, said the mechanical contractor will expand the sheet-metal shop at its South Valley Pike office partly because it’s begun prefabricating ductwork in the shop instead of building it at job sites.

It’s also taken over metal production for Hess Mechanical Corp., a fellow Comfort Systems USA company in Upper Marlboro, Md., and has started making spiral ductwork for some customers.

Riddleberger, Blosser said, is investing $1.6 million for the building expansion and equipment for the space, which is almost as large as its existing sheet-metal shop. Two to five employees likely will be added to handle the extra production.

Lantz Construction has been contracted to design and build the addition, which will be attached to the rear of the sheet-metal shop at Riddleberger’s office just north of Mount Crawford. Work should begin this month, with the goal of having employees working in the new section by year’s end.

“It’s a pretty substantial investment for a company our size,” Blosser said, “but we think it will pay dividends with the increased business we get from it.”

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Blosser said business has been growing since the recession ended in 2009, and the company has been involved in more projects. Prefabricating heating, ventilation and air conditioning duct systems in-house improves efficiency, quality and safety, but is a space eater.

“Ductwork, when it’s prefabricated, it takes up a lot of space,” he said. “With the increase in prefabrication, we needed more space for our own work.”

The need for the addition increased, Blosser said, when Hess’s expansion plans were tabled because it’s considerably less expensive to do the sheet-metal work here and deliver it to Maryland. Riddleberger added a driver to make those deliveries to its payroll, which stands at 326 workers.

The company also had to operate its plasma table, which cuts metal, in two shifts when it took on the Hess business, he said.

The transition began in February 2014, Blosser said. Riddleberger now handles virtually all Hess’ sheet-metal production.

Contact Vic Bradshaw at 574-6279 or vbradshaw@dnronline.com