The company built its manufacturing facility in Gretna in 1992, and now it is the largest company of its kind in North America, and the second-largest in the world, according to Brian Amthor, the marketing, sales and public relations director for the company. He also is president of its financing company, Horizon Capital Services Inc.
Amthor has now made it to a prestigious Virginia Chamber of Commerce list of top privately held Virginia companies - the 2008 Fantastic 50 - which will be formally announced in the May issue of Virginia Business magazine.
Amthor (the only Southside company on the list) and the 49 other companies will find out their specific rankings on the list at a May 1 banquet in Chantilly, where there also will be special awards for the overall top company and the top technology, manufacturing, retail and service companies.
“We’re very excited; it’s a big thing for us,” Amthor said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of great companies there (at the banquet). To be associated with very successful companies in the state is an honor for us.
 “We’ve worked very hard, my parents especially. We have a great supervisor here and great employees - they deserve credit, too.”

Arriving in gretna...
The Amthor family, and the 77-year-old company, is from the Catskill region of New York, and still has its northeastern distribution center and Amthor Welding at that location.
Brian Amthor said his parents - Arnold (better known as “Butch”) and Alice Amthor - wanted to build a large manufacturing facility at the New York welding location, but kept running into problems.
“It just didn’t work out,” Brian Amthor said. “We built a fire truck for one of the local fire departments here and they said, ‘Well, come on down to our industrial park. We’d love to have you!’ So we did.
“What would have taken five years to get done in New York, took less than three hours to get approved here, and we’ve been here ever since.”
The 47,000-square-foot factory was built in 1992, and the company added another 10,000 square feet to it in 1998.
“My father started the company with less than three orders (for tanks), and now we’re the largest in our industry,” Amthor said. “We’re a very aggressive company and we work very hard. I can’t stress enough how hard this company has worked, especially my parents, to make this company a success.”
Now there are 80 employees working two shifts, welding, polishing, drilling and fitting pieces together, and getting the tanks ready to ship - either mounted to chassis or ready for the customer to mount to his own chassis when it arrives.

It’s a family business...
Brian Amthor, 28, his parents and a brother, David, are all very active in the family business.
His parents share the president and vice president titles (his father is president of the New York company and vice president of the Virginia one, while his mother is president of the Virginia company and vice president in New York) and David is the general manager and engineer at the New York company and vice president of the trucking side of the company.
Brian Amthor said his father does the most commuting between the two locations, but that eased a bit recently when Skybus Airlines started service between New York and Greensboro, N.C.
“A nine-hour drive has turned into a three-hour commute; we’re very happy about that,” Amthor said, and laughed, “In fact, I ran into my father coming here today. He was getting off the flight I was getting on! We gave each other a hug and headed on our ways.”
Brian Amthor spent seven years in banking before joining the family business.
“I needed that experience, but I’m very glad to be here now,” he said.
He stays busy - he finished his Master of Business Education at Liberty University on March 7, went home to New York to take care of some business there (he’s also a town councilman back home), see his family and fiancée (he’s getting married in December) and was back in Gretna on March 12 to give some customers a plant tour.

Commitment to the community...
“We have products that are made here in Gretna, by local people, and are sold all over the world. The money is all brought back into this area and spent in this area,” Amthor said. “We work very hard at being good a corporate citizen in Pittsylvania County and the greater Gretna area.”
The company advertises that it will train workers as welders, electricians and mechanics, and has worked with the Virginia Employment Commission, Danville Community College and other agencies to make it possible.
“We hire local people and get the people in to training programs through the VEC. We want to get as many local people in here as possible,” Amthor said. “Welding’s not an easy job, not a desk job - it’s a skill. What we do here in our shop is a skill, and they need to be trained in the skill and the safety issues that go along with it.”

Contact Denice Thibodeau at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or (434) 791-7985.