IN SEVEN YEARS, SOLAR PRESS GROWS TO OVER 300 WORKERS

Angie Ford stripped reader service cards in the prepress department.

PERRYVILLE -- Among Perryville's industries, Solar Press stands out as one of the newest and fastest growing in the town's industrial park.

Solar Press of Perryville started with 12 employees in 1988, and has grown to more than 300 since it broke ground about seven years ago. And the company's fast-pace growth is expected to continue over the next few years.

The company designs, prints and distributes mass mailings for clients around the globe. In addition to the Perryville plant, Solar Press has plants in Naperville, Ill., and in a suburb of Brussels, Belgium. The plants grew from an idea almost 35 years ago.

Solar Press was founded in 1960 by the matriarch and patriarch of the Hudetz family, Gwen and John Hudetz. Two of their children, Peter and Frank Hudetz, presently serve as the president and chairman-chief executive officer, respectively.

Although a good product and efficient working conditions contribute to the company's success, many employees of Solar Press attribute the company's growth to the owners: the employees. One motto the employee-owned company quickly touts says it all: "People power. Solar's greatest resource!"

Vince Adelman, a division manager for Solar Press of Perryville, said he has been with the plant since its construction in 1988. He said he has watched the company hire more people and the building expand. Solar Press made an addition to the Perryville facility in late 1991, he said.

Since the company mails so many items every year, Adelman said the post office has an employee at the plant. The mailings Solar Press produce don't get dropped off at the post office in Perryville every evening. He said much of the initial work the post office does is completed on-site by employees of Solar Press. The mailings are then trucked to a regional postal facility, usually in St. Louis.

"We paid almost $20 million in postage last year," said Adelman. "Actually it was just $6 short of the $20 million mark."

Solar Press is expected to pay more in postage in 1995. That's not because of the increase in the postage rate but because of the company's growth.

"We're not going to feel that postage-rate increase," Adelman said. "That just gets passed on to the consumer."

Many companies in Perryville are having difficulty finding workers to fill jobs because of the sudden growth in the industrial park. Although Solar Press isn't currently hiring any full-time positions, the company has its eye on high school students as potential career employees. The company likes to groom the students for positions in graphic arts, pre-press, press, ink-jet printing and other areas.

"We have several part-time employees who are also high school students," Adelman said. "We have the opportunity to train them and most likely offer them a full-time position when they graduate."

Adelman said most of the managers at the Perryville plant have been promoted through the company. Most of the employees who were hired when the company opened have been promoted to managerial positions, he said.

"But we're putting a strain on the population," Adelman said. "Unemployment in Perryville is at 2 percent, and there aren't enough workers for the future growth we anticipate. We need entry-level people."

Adelman said he and other business leaders in Perryville were meeting to discuss ways of luring people to the area, a problem many towns would enjoy having.

"We're poised for substantial growth here in Perryville," he said, "and we want to have the population to service that growth."