Fire Won’t Discourage Delta Sports Industries

John Stabley — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:38:57 +0000

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fire Won’t Discourage Delta Sports Industries

August 8 fire destroys Delta’s 80,000-square-foot facility, but backup plans allow company to continue taking and filling orders for its extensive target line. The Iowa company vows to introduce new products at 2009 ATA Trade Show.

An early evening fire August 8 destroyed the sprawling headquarters of Delta Sports Industries in Reinbeck, Iowa, but President/CEO Laverne Woock expects few disruptions in sales of archery targets as the company recovers from the total loss of its 80,000-square-foot complex.

“While the fire was extremely unfortunate and affects our operation, it certainly is not devastating,” Woock said. “We have a great team. Our phone lines were back up by Monday. We’re taking and filling orders. We had contingency plans for a catastrophe, whether it was a fire, flood or tornado. It’s not the end of the world. We’ll recover. None of our 70 employees will have to visit the unemployment office. It’s just a big hiccup that we’ll work through.”

The fire, which began about 8 p.m. last Friday, consumed the building that contained Delta’s 3-D target manufacturing facilities, part of its design department, and its corporate, shipping and customer-service offices. The building also stored raw materials for several target models. No one was inside when the fire broke out, and no one nearby was injured as about 30 homes north of the complex were evacuated overnight as a precaution.

Although the fire destroyed Delta’s manufacturing operation for its 3-D targets, the company’s fulfillment warehouse and its extensive inventory of 3-D targets is about 20 miles away in Cedar Falls. In addition, Delta’s popular layered-foam and bag-target operations weren’t affected because the ShotBlocker line is made in North Carolina and the DeadStop line is made in Mississippi.

“The fire affected only our 3-D target manufacturing,” Woock said. “Our customer service department was operating the next business day. We were taking orders and shipping those orders by Monday this week. Our warehouse is stocked with existing 3-D targets, but our ability to replenish that inventory once it’s depleted will be compromised for about 60 to 90 days. Our current task is to find a building for our 3-D operation so we can get it running again by October 10 to October 15. It will probably take a few months beyond that to reach full speed, but this won’t affect our ability to ship targets and supply our customers next year.”

Woock said Delta’s computerized data base was spared because it’s continually updated and backed up remotely. The company quickly regained access to all information once its staff got set up in a temporary office in nearby Waterloo, Iowa. Woock expected the entire system to be back on line by Friday.

“We have access to our system right now through six laptops,” Woock said Wednesday morning. “I credit our team because we’ve taken several actions the past three years to protect everything from our target patterns to our accounting functions. This is still a nightmare, but we’re upright and functioning.”

The master patterns and sculptures for Delta’s many 3D targets are safe because they were stored in a different warehouse. The company has already shifted some production workers into the design department to help rebuild working moulds destroyed by the fire.

Woock said Delta’s design department was working 10-hour days five days a week, with a goal to produce 10 to 15 moulds weekly. “If we can keep up that pace for eight weeks we’ll have nearly 100 moulds ready before October 10,” Woock said. “We also have to replace equipment and machinery, but we’ve started that process already and expect to submit our orders for new equipment by next week.”

Woock is confident Delta will keep moving forward. “We’re continuing to develop our new product introductions for the ATA Show (January 8-10, 2009),” he said. “We’re inconvenienced, but we’re still in the fight. We’re still the largest archery target manufacturer in the world. We were the largest one August 8, we’re the largest today, and we’ll remain the largest tomorrow.”

Woock relays that message to every Delta employee he contacts. “If they’re a Delta employee, they’ll continue to receive a paycheck,” he said. “Everyone who’s home watching TV remains on call, and they can expect to be called to work in some capacity as we need their help. Our goal is to have everything up and running within 90 days at the max.”

The cause of the fire isn’t yet known. Woock said inspectors from the state fire marshal’s office and Delta’s insurance company were investigating. “They’ve isolated an area where they think it started, but it’s too soon to determine what caused it,” Woock said. “Anything beyond that is speculation. It will be at least a week before they determine the cause.”

By coincidence, ATA President/CEO Jay McAninch was in northern Iowa and planning to meet with Woock the day after the fire. “I’m impressed with Delta’s planning and organization in dealing with this tragic situation,” McAninch said. “The take-home lesson is that every company must take time to ensure their operation is safe from catastrophes. This includes a computer backup offsite; design masters stored in safe, offsite locations; and a team of employees trained and trusted with the authority to lead the reconstruction of their department, section or work area. Laverne and Delta’s leaders invested much time and energy in empowering their staff to truly know the business. That investment will now pay dividends for Delta.”

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CONTACT: Kelly Kelly
Aug. 13, 2008

(866) 266-2776, x 6
kellykelly@archerytrade.org

Stabley Outdoors » 2009 ATA Trade Show

Fire Won’t Discourage Delta Sports Industries

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