Today, we finally got some information from the Danville’s Economic Development office about the quite comatose GOK furniture company. I don’t believe a damned word of it.
Here’s the press release…
DANVILLE, Va. – GOK International Corp. will shift its product mix at its assembly plant and showroom in Ringgold from leather sofa and chair products to outdoor furniture and commercial chairs for offices and restaurants.
To allow for the transition, the Chinese-based company held a public inventory closeout sale this past weekend at its showroom, which is located in the Cane Creek Centre Industrial Park.
“We agree with the company that the new product lines will be ones that can be assembled more satisfactorily in Danville,” said Linwood Wright of the Danville Office of Economic Development.
The restructured company also will market rugs made in China.
The company currently has three employees. Those employees will remain with the company during the transition. Additional employees would be hired within 45 to 60 days, according to the company.
GOK announced plans in September of 2012 to establish operations in the Danville area by investing $12.5 million to open an assembly and showcase operation at the Cane Creek Centre in Ringgold. The company expected to create 300 jobs within three years.
The Virginia Tobacco Commission provided a $1 million grant to the company as an incentive to locate its operations in the area. City Manager Joe King said Monday that GOK must repay the grant if it does not meet the terms of its performance agreement.
The Office of Economic Development also wants the public to know that the recently announced Zeyuan Flooring Company will proceed as planned. The restructuring of GOK International will not impact the operation of Zeyuan Flooring.
I don’t believe this one damned bit. I don’t believe that GOK will ever come close to 300 jobs in the remaining part of their 3-year agreement. I believe that the city was forced to try to put some kind of a positive spin on this GOK debacle ever since SouthsideCentral declared the company to be a Job Bust last month.
“Zeyuan Flooring Company” has taken over the lease of the GOK building in the industrial park and Linwood Wright has said that there won’t be another building constructed in the near future. So where is this Newly Reborn GOK going to produce their products? It ain’t gonna happen.
You’ll also notice that there’s no statement from “Kevin” Liao, the CEO of this GOK company. If he’s out of the picture and he was the one to be the gatekeeper for this “China Strategy”, what does that say for these businesses he’s “recruited”?
I’m not accusing Danville’s economic development department of any wrongdoing here as they’re trying to grasp for straw. They’re trying to spin it by making this company’s latest plans sound realistic.I’ll probably be the only one who’ll have the guts to call horsecrap.
So…I’m calling horsecrap on this one. GOK will not ever be reborn as a 300-job company and this part of the “China Strategy” is a Job Bust.
You heard that here at SouthsideCentral.
You nailed it. Not sure why the City does not simply come clean and say it is history – but that does not follow the game plan. Does anyone on council have backbone? (I could answer that.)
[…] The dead (companies) are spinning… […]
[…] Here’s the SouthsideCentral article where we predicted nothing promised would ever happen. […]
[…] Regular retirements of city workers either get a flourishing five paragraph celebration of all they’ve done while working for the city, or they get nothing at all.This just smells fishy. But hey, this comes from the same city government that told you that GOK was going to do Just Fine in their company’s rebirth. […]
[…] make the trip back to the present. Sadly, GOK is deader than disco still reorganizing. In the meantime, Zeyuan Flooring is going to use part of the GOK building to start their business, […]