THE NAME OF THE GAME IS JOBS; AREA INDUSTRIES VITAL TO REGION'S ECONOMY

Existing industries are vital to the area's economy.

"Although new industries often grab the most attention, existing manufacturers will generate 80 percent of all new jobs," said Bob Hendrix, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce. "Expansions often result in new jobs."

A good example is found in Southeast Missouri's "Top 25" industries, based on employment figures.

Prime examples are Lee-Rowan's and Procter & Gamble's experiences in Cape Girardeau County.

"When Lee-Rowan started at Jackson in 1964, it was with 25 people," said Hendrix.

Lee-Rowan, manufacturer of closet items, is now one of the top five employers in Southeast Missouri.

Ten expansions later, the firm employs 750 people in the Jackson facility and has more than 600,000 square feet under roof.

P&G is one of the top three manufacturing employers in Southeast Missouri, with more than 1,300 employees.

"When P&G opened here in 1969, they had about 400 employees," said Hendrix. "Look at them now."

Another big employer is the Gilster-Mary Lee Co., which employs about 1,300 people in three plants in the Perryville area. The firm, headquartered in Chester, Ill., manufactures and packages cake mixes, cereals and popcorn.

Noranda Aluminum, situated about 55 miles south of Cape Girardeau along Interstate 55 near Marston, employs more than 1,200 people.

Rounding out the top five manufacturers in the area is Briggs & Stratton of Poplar Bluff, with about 700 employees.

In the sixth and seventh positions are TG-USA of Perryville, with 650 employees, and Thorngate of Cape Girardeau, with about 600 employees.

The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce started recognizing existing industries five years ago with its Industry of the Year award. Among industries honored over the past five years are General Sign, Lone Star Industries, P&G, Biokyowa and Concord Publishing Co., which includes the Southeast Missourian newspaper.

There are other large employers in the Cape Girardeau area Southeast Missouri Hospital, with over 1,400; St. Francis Medical Center, with over 1,200; and Southeast Missouri State University, with about 1,000 but the focus here is on manufacturers and product-related companies.

The top five industries, by employment, include:

P&G, manufacturers of disposable diapers and sanitary napkins. It started its Cape Girardeau operation in 1969 with the manufacture of Pampers, a disposable diaper.

The firm, which was founded in 1837 when William Procter and James Gamble joined forces to sell soap, candles and lard oil in downtown Cincinnati, added paper products in 1957, when it purchased Charmin Paper Products Co.

The manufacturing complex is 15 miles north of Cape Girardeau at the junction of Highway 177 and Route J. It is on a 1,225-acre site north of Trail of Tears State Park, which is along the Mississippi River.

Facilities include approximately 1,304,758 square feet about 30 acres of buildings under roof. They consist of production, warehouse and office space.

Today, the plant produces Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers, and Always, a feminine hygiene product.

P&G is one of the largest manufacturing employers in Southeast Missouri. The local payroll exceeds $50 million a year, making it the largest payroll in the area. The company spends an additional $145 million in annual purchases from Missouri suppliers for goods and services such as raw materials, contractor services and office supplies for use here and in other P&G locations.

Gilster-Mary Lee Co. employs a total of about 2,000 people in operations in Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri.

The Gilster-Mary Lee popcorn operation near Perryville produces about 15,000 cases of microwave popcorn daily. Other plants at Perryville produce cake mixes, potato and stuffing mixes, gelatin, pudding, chocolate syrup, hot cocoa and drink mix.

Noranda Aluminum Inc., situated in St. Jude Industrial Park east of Marston, produces aluminum for sale throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

A member of Noranda Inc. of Toronto, Canada, Noranda made its entry into the U.S. primary aluminum-producing industry in 1968, when it built at Marston.

The industry and the adjacent power generation plant operated by Associated Electric Co., take up more than half of the 4,200-acre industrial park owned by the city of New Madrid.

Noranda has approximately 1,200 employees, attracting labor from Southeast Missouri, Tennessee, and Arkansas. The majority of employees lists their residences in New Madrid, Scott, Pemiscot, Mississippi, Butler and Dunklin counties. The Marston plant is designed to produce 225,000 tons of metal a year.

Molten aluminum is drawn off daily from the mixture in steel cells and moved for further processing to the reduction plant's metal services department, where it is poured into charging furnaces for casting into rolling ingot, extrusion billet and casting ingot.

The finished products are shipped by truck and rail.

Lee-Rowan, which manufactures ventilated wire shelving and storage-related products, opened its facility in Jackson in 1964 in a 49,000-square-foot building.

Lee-Rowan produces a variety of ventilated wire storage systems, bath furniture and organizers, bulk shelving and other space-saving accessories, with distribution in the U.S., Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Europe, Caribbean Basin, South America and Mexico.

The company employs more than 1,100 people, with about 350 of them at the St. Louis facility. The company also recently announced it is opening a plant at Newbern, in western Tennessee.

Lee-Rowan was founded in 1939 by Edgar D. Lee and John V. Rowan as a manufacturer of metal trouser creasers, which were sold to Sears Roebuck and Co. and JCPenney.

Briggs & Stratton, the world's largest producer of air- cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment, opened its Poplar Bluff facility in 1989, with about 200 employees.

The company introduced the new Quantum II engine, designed for walk-behind lawn mowers in early 1989, and the Butler County plant became the primary producer of the engine.

During its first year, the plant employed more than 400 people, and by 1991 the firm's workforce was more than 600, with production figures reaching 9,000 engines daily at peak seasons. The plant produced 1.7 million engines during the 1991 fiscal year.

Another engine being produced at the facility is the Industrial PLUS 5-horsepower, side-valve engine.

Those ranked fifth through 10th are:

TG-USA, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Group, opened its first U.S. manufacturing plant in 1987 at Perryville.

The plant produces parts for Toyota Motors as well as for domestic automakers, including Ford and Chrysler.

The plant employs about 650 people.

Thorngate, a division of Hart Schaffner & Marx, employs about 600 people at its Cape Girardeau facility. Thorngate, which has been in Cape Girardeau for several years, added a 160,000-square-foot expansion at its local facility in 1989.

Florsheim Shoe, 1600 S. West End Boulevard in Cape Girardeau, employs more than 550.

Sabreliner Corp., headquartered at St. Louis, is a diversified service, modification and manufacturing company that supports a variety of military, government and commercial aircraft, engines, systems and components.

The firm includes facilities at St. Louis, Perryville and Neosho. Employment fluctuates from 300 to 450. Current employment is about 400.

Smiley Container Corp., Poplar Bluff, owned by Ward Paper Box Co., a subsidiary of Kansas City-based Russell Stover Candies, makes boxes for major candy brands such as Whitman's, Brach's and Fanny Farmer. With recent expansion, the firm employs more than 400.

Others and numbers of employees are:

Tri-Con Industries, 334A Broadview, Cape Girardeau, manufacturer of auto seat covers, 350 employees.

VIP Industries, Cape Girardeau, wood pallets, custom packaging for industry, 350.

Rowe Furniture Manufacturing, Poplar Bluff, 300-plus.

Gates Rubber, Poplar Bluff, 300-plus.

Solar Press, Perryville, 290.

Blair Industries, Scott CIty, audio-video cassette albums, 255.

Gold Bond Ice Cream, Sikeston, 225.

Malone & Hyde, Sikeston, 220.

Wetterau Co., Scott City, 218.

Havco wood Products, I-55 and Airport Road, laminated oak flooring, 200.

Mildenberger & Willing, Cape Girardeau, 185.

Lone Star Industries, cement and masonry, 175.

Concord Publishing, including Southeast Missourian, 170.

Triangle PWC Inc., Sikeston, 155.

Atlas Alchem Plastics, 229.

Broadview, extruded plastic sheets, 150.

Dana Corp., Cape Girardeau, 148.

Biokyowa Inc., Nash Road, L-Lysine, 95.