Royal Oak and Wal-Mart

No clue, but I am definitely getting some more RO when I pick up a couple spares...

I have been buying R.O. at the SuperWalmart. for alittle over a month, last week they didn't have R.O. IMO they should care it 365 days ayear

I use the R.O. as well and firmly believe it makes a difference compared to other lump charcoal I have used. BUt I HATE going to Walmart! Oh well, sacrifices must be made to achieve great Q!

oh i am just green with envy In the metro area of hampton roads, I have found only one walmart store that carries RO. I fear with winter coming on that supply will be replaced with christmas decorations I do have a small stockpile but when its gone its back to cowboy.

In my area WM stopped selling RO over a month ago. I'm not happy about this, but what can you do... Its back to Cowboy and Kingsford.

I checked with a "supervisor" at Wally on this issue. He said if it is on the Wally website, it can be ordered and picked up at the store. Whether it will be on the website all winter?? Fingers crossed.

Hey Crusty, I live n Va Bch. We should tag team the WM an make em stock RO, LOL. Been using Kingsford fer the past month.

Wally Woeld in my parts carries RO lump for 2 weeks before marking it down to $2.00 a bag. I bought the whole pallet they had in the store ($100.00 bill) and they have not carried it since. Funny thing is I use only RO briquettes for all my Dutch oven cooking and Ace hardware just started carrying the briquettes. I asked them about the lump and they are checking into it. I dont have to drive 35 miles to get my briquettes and 45 miles to find out about the lump. Hopefully a 2 mile RT drive will get me both soon!

2, 2005


Royal Oak plant to shut down

Charcoal briquette maker has been in operation in White City for 35 years

By GREG STILES
Mail Tribune

WHITE CITY — Raw material costs and foreign competition have steadily eroded charcoal briquette maker Royal Oak Enterprisesâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] market share in recent years.
The nationâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s No. 2 briquette manufacturer, based in Roswell, Ga., which once ran its plant at 7930 Agate Road nonstop, reduced to two shifts in 2003. Last year, it shed the second shift as competitors, primarily from China, wooed away major retailers and their private label contracts.
On Wednesday, Royal Oak Enterprises informed its 27 local employees that it is closing the 35-year-old plant in a matter of weeks.
"We could all see the handwriting on the wall," said manager Mike Anderson on Thursday. "Weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve been downsizing the last few years as weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve lost our customer base."
The company also operates four plants in Missouri, one in Florida and one in Tennessee. Anderson said the average hourly wage was around $16.50 at the plant, which manufactured 2½ - to 40-pound bags. Production will continue four to six weeks.

Advertisement
var ACE_AR = {Site: '715547', Size: '300250'};Dim adsVB,poadsVB=0If ScriptEngineMajorVersion >=2 then adsVB=1Function adsAX(aX)on error resume nextIf adsVB=1 thenadsAX=Falseset po=CreateObject(aX)adsAX=IsObject(po)If (err) then adsAX=FalseElseadsAX=FalseEnd IfEnd Function
"We havenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t drawn a line in the sand and said this exact day," said Anderson, who has been at the plant since 1978. "We have raw material that weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve already purchased to use up and different things to satisfy.
"Everybody is being professional about it and going about their work. Itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s not going to be easy. Human nature is such that people shun changes, but you move on."
Senior management did not return phone messages to the companyâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s Georgia headquarters.
The plant was first operated by Georgia Pacific, then Husky Industries of Calgary, Alberta, before Royal Oak Enterprises acquired the 20-acre site in 1984.
Royal Oak has ranked second behind Kingsford Inc., of Desoto, Kan., in production. Private label briquettes, including sales to restaurants, accounted for 98 percent of the plantâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s production. Three years ago, Anderson said Albertsons, Safeway, Rite-Aid, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Western Family and Ralphâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s were among its customers.
"At one time there were dozens of private labels," said Anderson, who was promoted to manager 17 years ago. "Unfortunately, itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s down to handfuls, which brings up the situation weâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]re in now."
He said about a third of the employees have been with the company since it was owned by Georgia Pacific.
Royal Oak locally employed 60 prior to July 2002 when it shut down a production furnace and laid off 17 workers. It began shipping char from Branson, Mo., by rail, adding to its production costs.
Bruce Laird, a state regional economic development officer, said Royal Oak has been fighting an uphill battle for more than 15 years.
"They lost their raw material base — Douglas fir bark — when the forest product industry went into decline," Laird said. "Second, there was the impact of sharp increases in energy and that increased the value of ‘hogâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] fuel (fuel, like fir bark, for cogeneration power plants), so there was less of it coming from places like Boise Cascade.
Imported raw materials meant higher freight costs. As wholesale buyers contracted for lower-priced imported briquettes, the White City plant saw a steady payroll decline to where one shift remained in April 2004.
"You had a diminished supply and increased demand. Add foreign competition and youâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]ve got a near-perfect storm."
Laird anticipates there will be plenty of interest in the plantâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s property. County records show that the property, adjacent to Boise Cascade and Panel Products operations was obtained for $1.375 million in 1987. "You never know, but I think somebody out there will be real interested because there are a category of companies out there that have seen a lot of growth."

that email is dec 2, 2005,
whos making RO now, I bought some a couple weeks ago.
what the update on this??

EH HomeAbout UsCommunitiesRadiationWaterSewageProgramsNewsroom var nodeList = new Array();// Array of all nodes in the site structurevar breadcrumb = new Array();// Array of all nodes in the breadcrumb trailvar i = 0;// Index for nodeList arrayvar crumbLevel = 0;// Index for breadcrumb arrayvar indent = 20;// Indent value for display// This function creates asset Node objectsfunction Node(id, name, url, level, children, parent) {this.id = id;this.name = name;this.url = url;this.level = level;this.children = children;this.parent = parent;}// This function creates breadcrumb objectsfunction breadcrumbNode(id, parent) {this.id = id;this.parent = parent;} programs > PACE-EH > Marion > PACE-EH Marion
PACE EH (Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health)
For more information on this project, contact Herman Hale, PACE EH Coordinator, or Tom Moore, Environmental Health Director, at the Marion County Health Department.




Winner of the
2005 Ocala/Marion County Chamber of Commerce
Walter Driggers Environmentalist of the Year Award
MARION COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
December, 2006 PACE-EH Progress Report


Latest News!
August 1, 2006 - Royal Oak fined for violations
(pdf<1mb)
Date: January 22, 2007
To: Daniel Parker, MSP
Assistant Division Director, Division of Environmental Health
From: Herman Hale, RN
PACE-EH Coordinator
Subject: Update - West Ocala Neighborhood PACE EH Project
Marion County Health Department, Environmental Health Division
1. Project Summary


The funds secured by the Environmental Health Division of the Marion County Health Department will be used to facilitate a community-driven initiative. This project - West Ocala Neighborhood PACE-EH Project - seeks to collaboratively conduct an assessment, strategically plan and set priorities to address environmental health concerns. The goal of the project is to impact and improve the quality of life of the West Side community of the city of Ocala.
2. Work Plan and Process Update


The Marion County Health Department's PACE-EH team has had a busy January and is happy to report the renewed efforts of its project in West Ocala. A group of community leaders from West Ocala (some of whom, were CEHA team members of the original PACE-EH project), were provided CEHAB funding via a grant application. Their intentions are to do additional environmental testing in their neighborhood (related to the residual effects of emissions from the Royal Oak Charcoal Plant, which shut down operations in the spring of 2006), educate their neighbors by sponsoring and organizing a health fair, and collecting data through a community assessment. The PACE-EH coordinator attended a neighborhood meeting on January 8, 2007, where he presented information related to the CEHAB funding and his role as a liaison between this group and the Marion County Health Department's fiscal branch (who will be overseeing the distribution of these funds). In conjunction with the health department's fiscal representative (Ann Deranzio), the PACE-EH team has been developing a grant contract specifically designed to address the goals identified in the grant and a target date of February 1, 2007 has been set for the contracts completion and signing.

Read the final report of the West Ocala Neighborhood Environmental Health Assessment Survey
(pdf <1mb)

The PACE-EH team has also developed a planning committee and has met to discuss the possible expansion of the project to include other areas of our county. Tom Moore, Environmental Health Administrator, Jim Padgett, Environmental Spe******t, David Payne, Environmental Supervisor, and Herman Hale, RN, PACE-EH Coordinator, met to discuss their options. During the meeting, it was determined that other communities might benefit from this process and specific communities were identified. Also identified during this planning session, were specific problems related to these neighborhoods (illegal dumping, poor drainage/septic systems, lack of paved roads, water quality, etc).
Not wanting to bite off more than it can chew (in the 5th largest county in Florida), the group also sought direction from Dr. Nathan Grossman the Health Department Director and our state PACE-EH representative, Daniel Parker, to insure expansion plans were both feasible and prudent. After input from this group, it has been determined that we will continue to focus our efforts in West Ocala and at some point in the future (when the West Ocala project nears its conclusion), the project will open dialogue with new communities within our county.
The Marion County PACE-EH team will continue its forward progress; in support of the West Ocala PACE project and we are looking forward to the opportunities the new year will present.