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Gov. Northam celebrates progress at Southside van manufacturing plant

Plant is now operational

PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY, Va. – The wheels are turning for a company bringing hundreds of jobs to Southwest Virginia.

On Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam and Virginia Secretary of Trade and Commerce Brian Ball visited the Morgan Olson plant in Pittsylvania County to celebrate the progress.

Gov. Ralph Northam (right) poses for a picture with John Poindexter, the chairman of Morgan Olson's parent company. (Copyright 2020 by WSLS 10 - All rights reserved.)

The company makes delivery vans and last October, it announced plans to create more than 700 jobs.

As of Thursday, 300 people had been hired.

The company is also about to increase production from 12 vans a week to 16.

“With the demand of online services, with healthcare supplies that need to be delivered, they are making trucks faster than people are buying them,” Northam said. “So what a success story this is for Morgan Olson, but as importantly it’s a success story for Danville and for the Southside.”

He said Danville should be a model for the state and the country for economic development.