By ANNIE GOELLER, Daily Journal staff writer
Officials from a Franklin company are balancing their feelings of sympathy for victims and their business sense after Hurricane Katrina’s damage.
Businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi will need to replace damaged and lost air compressors they bought from Grimmer Industries, meaning more business for the Franklin company.
The company sells the compressors, which range in price from $10,000 to $90,000, to companies throughout the country and exports others to Japan and China. Businesses use the machines for sandblasting, construction and drilling for oil, natural gas and minerals.
Employees who have already been working overtime in a busy year will need to work even more hours to replace those machines. The company is also hiring more workers due to the increase in business, said Tim Hollingsworth, president of the company, which employs 100 and does $25 million in business each year.
Officials have no idea how many air compressors were lost in the storm and might not find out for a month, he said.
One company affected by Katrina had 100 machines, said John Grimmer, vice president of marketing.
Hollingsworth said some estimates of damage to machines have come in, but not many.
People are still assessing the damage and looking for shelter and food and don’t have time to check the machines, he said.
Company officials have not talked to many of customers in the area but have heard that some machines that are used to sandblast corrosion off oil rigs were knocked into the water, Hollingsworth said.
Compressors made by Hurricane, a division of Grimmer, will also have to be replaced. Many of those compressors were used in drilling rigs that collect oil, natural gas and minerals such as copper and uranium.
As the demand for oil and gas grows more than it already has, the company will have to produce more machines on top of the ones that will need to be replaced, Hollingsworth said.
Not all the business is coming from the need to replace the machines, but it will add to the workload and the company’s profits, he said.
Officials know replacing the compressors will boost business for the company but are still dealing with the ethics of the sales, he said.
Hollingsworth is keeping the welfare of the employees in mind.
“Our job as a company is to be successful to provide a good place for people to work,” he said.
Katrina was a horrible tragedy, and the company is willing to do anything it can to help, Grimmer said.
That’s why the company has offered to match any donations employees make to the victims of Katrina, he said.
Portions © 2005 The Daily Journal, Johnson County, Indiana.