By Les Shaver

On Monday, Martinsville, Va.-based CP Films announced that it is moving members of its customer service and credit organization out of its Southern Virginia headquarters and into the home office of its parent company, St. Louis based Solutia.

The move will involve 30 employees in the company’s customer service department from around the country and another six in credit reporting.

“We’re taking the customer service representatives in different locations in North America and consolidating them in one location,” says spokesperson Melissa Hammonds. “The majority will come from Martinsville.”

In an exclusive interview with Window Film magazine, CP Film’s President Ray Kollar says that locating all customer service employees in St. Louis maximizes efficiencies and improves process standardization, which will help him grow the business. “Solutia put me in this role to grow the business,” he says.

Those employees will have the option of moving to St. Louis. If they don’t want to move they’ll be given severance packages and job search assistance. The transition should be complete by the end of the year. Other customer service representatives could also be coming to St. Louis in the not-so-distant future.

“We’re looking at different world regions and deciding if there’s an opportunity for consolidation,” Hammonds says.

While Kollar acknowledges that the positions of those customer service representatives who stay in Martinsville may not be filled, he doesn’t think CP’s customers will notice a difference. For instance, the same number they’ve called in the past will be forwarded to St. Louis and they should get similar information. “They may hear a different voice on the end of the line,” Kollar says.

After the transition, CP Film’s Martinsville operation will be focused on manufacturing, research, development, and technology for the company’s global film business.. There will be new faces coming in though. After hiring 24 people in manufacturing earlier this year, Kollar says the company will be adding an additional eight manufacturing employees. Driving this increased manufacturing capacity will be the energy savings initiatives from both the U.S government and around the world that should lead to increased demand for film.

“We have several programs in place to capture the energy savings movement,” he says.

The additional manpower will help the manufacturer meet that demand. “In terms of manufacturing, it allows us to respond to the market quicker,” Kollar says.

Kollar adds that the move will help the company reach his target goal of doubling its sales within five years. It took steps toward that two months ago by creating an in-house sales specialist team to help find and win retail and commercial architectural projects.

With the economy struggling Kollar thinks building owners and managers who may not have considered window film in the past are not ripe for installation. That prompted the creation of the in-house sales team to reach these executives that regular film dealers may not have the time or resources to court. Kollar says that team is mobilized and in the process of doing a “first-class” energy analysis. It’s also developing a pipeline of new business. And there may be even more strategic moves coming soon.

“I would expect you see more announcements [soon],” Kollar says.