Local firms cautiously plan growth
Washington area companies are coming out of the hunkered-down crouch they assumed during the recession and weak recovery, making cautious plans for new hiring and investment that seem likely to fuel more rapid economic growth in the area in 1994.</br></br>In interviews with more than a dozen local business executives, a strong consensus emerged that the slow expansion would gain momentum this year, partly because companies are ready to move forward after having completed the job cutbacks and other retrenching that they carried out in response to the slump.</br></br>"I think we feel more opportunity and more optimism going into 1994 than we did going into 1993," said Mathias J. DeVito, chief executive of Rouse Co., in a typical comment. The Columbia commercial real estate developer plans to begin building new retail properties, something it has not done for several years.</br></br>* Giant Food Inc., which is opening three stores in new markets, also will remodel or expand five stores--a decision made in recent months. As a result, the supermarket company expects to hire more than 400 additional workers.</br></br>* MCI Communications Corp. and other technology companies that anticipate expanding markets also will be hiring. MCI, which employs 5,300 people in the Washington area, expects to add jobs here this year as it prepares to compete with Bell Atlantic Corp. and other regional phone companies. At Cellular One, which more than doubled its work force in the Washington-Baltimore area to 406 during 1993, president and general manager Charles E. Hoffman predicted "continued growth in 1994, as the popularity of cellular technology continues to soar." * New business telephone hookups in the Washington area, a good indicator of future employment growth, have increased considerably, rising to 21,688 in 1993 from 15,841 in 1992.