It began with just five employees. Now there are 140.

It began as just a small local business and now offers its services all over the United States.

Rayco Industrial Inc., an industrial construction company based in Selma, just seems to keep getting bigger and bigger year after year.

It is something that company president Ray Harrelson says has kept him up late nights, but it is also a way to make his community that much stronger.

“Selma has been always been really good to us,” said Harrelson, who created the company four years ago. “It is also place where we expect to see bigger and better things happen.”

Now Harrelson has announced that Rayco will be expanding once again.

The company recently acquired Advanced Welding Services of Birmingham, which specializes in building pipe machinery.

Harrelson said Advanced Welding’s new headquarters will now be located in Selma, a few miles up the road from Rayco Industrial’s headquarters on Highway 41. The move is expected to bring 80 to 100 new jobs to the local community.

“It is definitely something that will help us to open up so many new doors that were never there before,” said Harrelson with a grin. “It is also something that we are trying make available to our local community.”

Harrelson added that the new employees would receive special training to be able to perform in their new positions.

“We will basically be training these people to operate the new types of machines that are out there,” he said.

Besides the most recent expansion, Harrelson said Rayco plans to cash in on another big business to hit Alabama &045;&045; automobiles.

A new $1 billion Hyundai plant to be built in Hope Hull is expected to bring thousands of jobs to the Central Alabama area, a move that Harrelson says will give Rayco even more business and possibly even create new job openings at Rayco.

He noted that Rayco had been working with Selma Mayor James Perkins in an effort to land construction contracts with the new plant.

“Mayor Perkins has assisted us quite a bit in order to help us prepare for Hyundai,” Harrelson said. “He really has been doing an excellent job and he deserves a lot of credit for what he has done. We expect to put a lot of people to work with Hyundai.”

Harrelson added that he also expected several of his employees to actually work for the new plant when it finally opens in 2005. However, he said that it will only open up new positions at Rayco, a move that would ultimately end up employing more people in Selma.

“We will always need new people if others decide to leave,” said Harrelson. “So really, it’s a good thing.”