During four generations of family ownership, Middlesboro-based J.R. Hoe and Sons has secured the placement of its foundry and metal fabrication products in locations around the nation.
 
Manhole covers in city streets across the region bear the company’s logo. Its industrial-iron castings are utilized in machinery around the U.S. and abroad.

The company’s fabricated steel products also help support—quite literally—tremendous civil projects. Those projects include the Cumberland Gap Tunnel, a new light rail passenger train system in Charlotte, NC, and structural fabrications for a major expansion at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.     
 
Next year, J.R. Hoe and Sons will become one of the few companies in eastern Kentucky to celebrate a century of doing business.
 
With help from the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. (EKCEP), the company is training employees to use cutting-edge new equipment that will help it continue to compete, expand, and thrive in the now-global marketplace for another 100 years.
 
Harry H. “Bo” Hoe, J.R. Hoe and Sons president, said even an old and accomplished company needs to constantly adapt to changing market conditions.
 
“Each year is a new challenge and we’re going to take them as they come. No resting on our laurels,” Hoe said.
 
To that end, the company recently purchased a computer-programmable fabrication drill costing in excess of $150,000.
 
That new drill will greatly increase the productivity and speed of employees, who in the past had to manually measure and drill holes in beams, according to Rob Arch, company fabrication manager. The new drill reliably places the holes where it is programmed to.
             
Although the drill will allow the company to compete with similar but much larger operations across the nation and globe, Hoe said many of the company’s 50 employees will first require extensive training to properly operate it.
            
That’s where EKCEP and the JobSight network come in, said Crawford Blakeman, EKCEP Business Solutions manager. The JobSight network of workforce centers is administered by EKCEP in 23 eastern Kentucky counties.

EKCEP’s Business Solutions services are provided locally through the Bell County JobSight operated by the Bell-Whitley Community Action Agency in Pineville.
 
Given EKCEP’s increased focus on helping provide training for existing workforces—incumbent worker training—Blakeman and Craig Brock, Business Services manager at the Bell County JobSight, sat down with Hoe officials and discovered EKCEP could help the company with the $40,000 cost of training its employees to use its new drill.
 
Blakeman said EKCEP created a customized training contract that covered half of the cost of that training, or $20,000.
 
Hoe said the company was committed to purchasing the new equipment and training employees with or without assistance, but EKCEP’s training funds provided an “added incentive” to move forward at a much quicker pace.
 
Thanks to EKCEP’s assistance, four employees were recently sent to Baltimore, MD, for intense training on the computer-controlled drill. The massive equipment was installed at the company’s Middlesboro headquarters in late June, and the company plans to train its other workers there.
 
Both Hoe and Arch agreed the new machine and employee training will help the company remain highly competitive in a global economy.
 
Blakeman said training programs that help employees adapt to new technology help more than just the companies where those employees work. They help the entire regional economy.
 
“Any training EKCEP participates in that upgrades the skills of our workforce hopefully contributes to the economic vitality of our area,” Blakeman said.
 
The economic value of training incumbent workers cannot be underestimated, Blakeman said, adding the J.R. Hoe and Sons project seemed “made to order” for EKCEP’s goals.
 
“It was the perfect example of how customized training can be utilized to help a business upgrade the skills of its people, remain competitive, and continue to pay good wages and provide benefits that people in our area need,” Blakeman said.
 
Arch and Hoe also praised Brock and Blakeman’s role in helping meet the company’s workforce needs.
 
“These guys, truthfully, made it very, very friendly,” Arch said.
 
Brock said he considers companies like J.R. Hoe and Sons to be the backbone of the American economy. The company’s longevity when compared to others is a testament to its willingness to adapt to meet new challenges, he said.
 
“So many of these businesses have gone by the wayside, maybe because they refuse to change or upgrade,” Brock said.
 
Brock said he is glad that EKCEP and JobSight could assist the company, and hopes the positive experience will lead to future collaborations.
 
“We’re more than happy to assist J.R. Hoe and Sons with a training program that will give them a competitive edge in their extremely competitive industry,” Brock said.
 
For more information on Business Solutions services available to employers in Bell County, contact Craig Brock at 606-337-3044.