It would have been hard to tell on Tuesday morning that Gov. Terry McAuliffe had an important jobs and investment announcement to make in Newport News in just a little more than an hour.

As he crossed paths with employees during a 9:30 a.m. tour of Kerma Medical Products in Suffolk, McAuliffe almost invariably stopped to say hello, ask what the employee’s task was about and engage in a bit of small talk.

Time ticked by as he stood with one man picking products from shelves for delivery and chatted about the men’s expectations for the Super Bowl.

Time ticked by as he stood with a woman folding fetal monitor bands for packing.

Time ticked by as he held a baby bonnet and grinned at the stack of hundreds another employee had sitting in front of her while Kerma owner Joe Reubel described the manufacturing process to him.

And all the while, there was the drive to Newport News coming up, along with the announcement of a $25.7-million investment by Printpack that would bring 50 new jobs to the community.

But from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. or so, McAuliffe was all about Suffolk and Kerma Medical.

“This is the best city in all of America!” he exclaimed. And, though everyone clearly knew it was a laugh line, nobody seemed sorry to hear it.

McAuliffe famously loves to play the part of pitchman for Virginia and its businesses, and he relished that opportunity on Tuesday.

“We love our veteran businesses,” he said of his visit to Kerma, a minority-veteran owned business that moved to Suffolk from Portsmouth in 2011.

“I’m constantly trying to convince our active-duty military that when they move out of the service, they should stay in Virginia,” he said. “I want to inspire others to do what Joe did.”

As McAuliffe and Reubel walked together, their conversation ranged from the expected historic cost to state government of the weekend’s blizzard to Kerma’s desire to try to capture more of an international market.

For a governor who had just returned from a marketing visit to Cuba, the company’s ambitions triggered a commitment to action.

“He could use our help on a couple of projects he’s working on,” McAuliffe said, adding that he expects Secretary of Commerce and Trace Maurice Jones — one of several administration officials touring Kerma with the governor — to help connect the company to the Virginia Leaders in Export Trade program.

For his part, Reubel was pleased with the governor’s visit.

“It went fantastic,” he said. “Anytime you can meet someone in the position he holds … it’s got to be a positive thing. He’s been in my shoes.”

Reubel said his company, which has from 85 to 100 full-time employees, depending on the season, has grown from about $47 million in sales prior to its 2011 move to Suburban Drive in Suffolk to about $70 million in sales this year.

Kerma provides medical products to more than 4,000 acute care hospitals and government agencies.

Company officials have talked about automating some of the processes the governor watched during his tour, Reubel said, but they have balked at the idea, because it would mean letting employees go.

Instead, he said, he’s looking for opportunities to expand, both in geographic scope and in Kerma’s product offerings, perhaps pursuing those goals through acquisition of companies in the durable medical equipment category.

“We’re looking outside of health care and asking, ‘What can we bring to the health care industry?’” he said.

That’s the kind of question Terry McAuliffe loves to hear Virginia business owners ask.

See more photos from the visit at www.tinyurl.com/KermaVisit.