Vermeer has made “great progress” in resuming customer support operations after the Pella, Iowa, firm suffered major damage in a June 19th tornado, says Doug Hundt, Vermeer’s president of Industrial Solutions.
After assuring the safety of Vermeer team members — as well as around 400 dealers and customers celebrating the firm’s 70th anniversary — Hundt says re-establishing the company’s parts center operations was a priority. “The day after the storm, we were able to ship emergency parts, minimizing the impact to our customers,” he says.
Hundt attributes “years of training and practice” to the fact that the dealers and customers on site were safe and quickly accounted for after the storm hit.
There are several trained EMTs among Vermeer employees, says Hundt. After the 4:15 p.m. storm, they quickly went to work to treat people with minor injuries, compressing the time needed for medical attention. All injured people were released from the local hospital that night.
The twister took a estimated 8 to 10 mile path, running a tight diagonal path through the Vermeer complex. This meant that while two plants — 5 and 6 — received significant damage, much of the equipment inventory lined up outside the manufacturing facility prior to shipping was not affected.
In addition, the day after the storm, Vermeer dealers committed in a group email that they would share inventory amongst themselves to help with any immediate local needs while Vermeer rebuilds, Hundt says.
Plant 5, which produced grinders, is probably a “complete loss,” Hundt says. Plant 6, which produces some horizontal directional drill models, was also heavily damaged. The company remains hopeful, however, that much of the machine tooling in those plants can be recovered. In the meantime, production lines in those plants will shift to the other plants in the complex. Vermeer may also rent out some local manufacturing space to resume full production.
