POWERGRAMS

28 say. We had four or five guys in here this morning, not buying anything, just shooting the bull." Richardson has four full-time and three part-time employees. He and Glenda Odom have worked together 43 years. He continues hiring local high school students through the same program that brought him into the business with Weinstein. The hallway between the tailored clothing and furnishings building and the original Bernard's is lined with Christmas card photographs of customers' children sent in through the years; many of those pictured now frequent the store as adults. A framed portrait of Weinstein, tape measure draped around his neck, stands on an end table. "We've been fortunate to stay open, and busy, only because of our loyal customers and repeat business," Richardson says. "A lot of companies today are online and don't want to see you eye to eye. That personal contact has made Bernard's successful." YOROZU NEW LINK TO BEST-SELLING AUTOS What will a new Honda Ridgeline, Nissan Altima, Acura RDX, Mercedes M Class and Toyota Camry soon have in common? Each could depend on crucial elements built at a $117 million plant in Jasper. Since July 2017, Yorozu Automotive Alabama employees have been making steel components at the 283,826-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, which is the Japanese corporation's second U.S. manufacturing site. Yorozu has long been a major player in the auto parts world but in 2015 was enticed to Jasper, in part, because the town is at the geographical center of 10 car plants in the South. Yorozu specializes in suspension parts also found in the Nissan Maxima, Titan and NV van, and Honda Pilot. More than 160 employees, out of an anticipated workforce of some 300, already occupy the no-frills, white-walled building where "Safety First" is posted in every room, on each floor and flies alongside the American, Alabama and Yorozu flags out front. There are engineers, hydraulic press operators, painters, assembly and shop workers, maintenance personnel and administrators amidst scores of robots, conveyer belts, colossal cranes and computer screens. "There's quite a wide range of skills required to make this kind of operation work efficiently," says Senior Vice President Reuben Byrom, who transferred with two other executives aer he spent 24 years at Yorozu's first American plant near Murfreesboro in his native Tennessee. "There's a lot of opportunity for advancement within this company. You may start at the ground-floor level today, then, by applying yourself, end up in a management position." As Byrom walks a marked path along the concrete factory floor 55 feet beneath the roof, rolls of steel weighing 16,000-26,000 pounds are lied onto a reel by one of four 20-ton overhead cranes. A 3,500-ton transfer press slams onto the thin, flat metal sheets, repeatedly popping out the beginnings of a rear suspension part. Interchangeable dies fill a large area of the floor, awaiting transfer inside the press for the different car parts produced by Yorozu employees. Each pressed part goes through a series of refinements before becoming the finished products that have earned the parent company its stellar reputation during the past 70 years. All raw materials come into the south end of the massive building and eventually exit as completed Specialty shops now fill some of the old buildings in Jasper. Customer Marci Pilling watches Richardson alter her son's military dress uniform.

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