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Lift for enterprise
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Lift for enterprise
by: KYLE ARNOLD World Staff Writer
Saturday, January 24, 2009
1/24/2009 2:43:56 AM
Disaster has become opportunity for HydroHoist in the wake of a 2007 fire at the company's Rotek division factory in Claremore.
Construction was completed this month on a $2 million expansion at the boat-lift manufacturer that added five employees and a massive piece of machinery. The new equipment will allow the company to make products for other industries, from highway safety and environmental applications to defense and agriculture, said Mick Webber, president and CEO of HydroHoist.
"This new machine will let us expand into some markets that we couldn't before," he said.
That could help HydroHoist stay afloat as recreational boating sinks during the recession.
An oven burner fire in October 2007 destroyed some of the plant and one of its ovens. So, last year, the company started a 10,000-square-foot expansion to double the division's capacity and replace an older rotary mold oven, which is the technical way to describe a machine that turns plastic beads into seamless, hollow boat lifts.
HydroHoist, which has been around since 1965, manufactures lifts for smaller boats and jet skis. From 2000 to 2005, it grew 15 percent a year.
Business slowed in 2006, then the market for boats took a real hit in the summer of 2007, Webber said.
The company, with two factories in Claremore, registered sales of about $19 million in 2008.
While HydroHoist has managed to see modest growth in each of the last three years through expanding markets, Webber said the ups and downs of a seasonal, recreation-linked business aren't safe in a recession.
"We get all of our business from January to July, then every year it slows down," he said. "We've got to get out of the seasonality of this business."
So when the company needed to replace its old oven, it went big and had diversification in mind.
The new machine has three giant arms that rotate a spinning mold into a massive convection oven. The arms then rotate through the oven, which heats to 575 degrees, coating the inside of the mold with an even layer of plastic.
"We can essentially make anything that's hollow and needs to be airtight," said Jeff Gettinger, general manager at Rotek's 12-employee plant.
Before the expansion, HydroHoist was running three shifts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Gettinger said. The added capacity will let HydroHoist cut down to a single shift and perform work for other suppliers.
By diversifying and making opportunities for contract work, Webber thinks HydroHoist will improve its revenue by 3 percent to 5 percent this year.
"We're still going to make money, but we think we can do even better by being smart," Webber said.
HydroHoist Marine Group
915 W. Blue Starr, Claremore
Founded: 1965
Employees: 73
2008 Revenue: $19 million
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