The new Arcade Marketing plant in Chattanooga doesn't smell like a typical manufacturing facility.
The aroma of perfume and other sweet scents waft through the air as machinery hums, encapsulating and affixing onto advertising samplers a variety of fragrances, cosmetics or personal care products.
"We make true test samples," said Bill Hoffman, Arcade's vice president and general manager in Chattanooga. "It's a very real representation of the product."
He pointed to an entire pallet of magazine advertising inserts for Chanel No. 5 which will go into magazines after Arcade finishes applying the samples.
Arcade workers are settling in to their new $10 million renovated home on Amnicola Highway, relocating from a facility on East Main Street where it operated for decades.
Arcade also is adding to its work force. When the company announced the shift about a year ago, it planned to add 50 jobs over three years.
Hoffman said Arcade is filling those jobs faster than anticipated. The company is up to 240 workers now with at least another 20 to hire, a bit of an increase over original plans, he said.
"It's tough to find skilled people," Hoffman said.
J.Ed. Marston, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's vice president of marketing, said that as Arcade updates its facilities and technology, it continues to be a player in its industry niche.
"It's easy to forget what growth looks like on the front line. It's very much a company like this, a significant company but not a huge company, but they're growing the economy by adding jobs and being competitive in its industry," Marston said.
ABOUT ARCADE* Parent company: Visant Corp. in Armonk, N.Y.* Revenues: Arcade is 15 percent to 20 percent of Visant's $1.3 billion business* Employees: 240 in Chattanooga* New plant size: 122,000 square feetSource: Arcade Marketing
Hoffman estimates that Arcade, which started in 1902, has a 70 percent share of its market.
"We cut our teeth in the industry," he said.
Arcade does a lot of so-called scratch and sniff work in which a scent is applied to paper, the general manager said. A lot of its products are protected by patents, Hoffman said, and it has a sizable research and development operation.
While Arcade is expanding in Chattanooga, its business hasn't been shielded from the economic downturn. Not as many magazines exist and circulation is down, Hoffman said.
The Chattanooga move included shutting a Baltimore, Md., plant and shifting a cosmetics sample kit production operation to the Scenic City.
But, he said, the company is remaining innovative as it meets its customers' demands and replaces outgoing patents with new ideas. Health care products are a segment in which it can grow, Hoffman said.
The company has nine acres on its new site, including an undeveloped tract, to accommodate its future, he said.
Online: Hear J.Ed. Marston talk about Arcade Marketing. Read previous stories.