As everyone knows reading this letter, the offshore oil and gas industry is in the midst of one of its most challenging downturns in history. I thought it would be appropriate to let the end users and the distributors of our products know how we are handling these difficult times
We (like everyone in the oil and gas industry) have had to downsize and it’s been painful to say the least. We have had to let go employees that were honest, loyal and hardworking. Many of these fine people had in excessive of twenty years with our company. These were some of the worst days of my professional life- having to tell such fine people that we no longer had enough work to keep everyone employed.
Through these several months, we have maintained our commitment to quality and have used this sluggish business time to improve. Up until two years ago, our biggest challenge was trying to get enough product out the door to meet the demand. This IS a good thing but it can also stifle your business a bit as it’s difficult to find the time to improve the other elements of the company. Things such as manuals, website, support materials and new product development can be hard to make time for if the business is running full out at 110%.
We have been and will continue to use this time to make our company better, more efficient and stronger. We have added a new online printable catalog, attained our ISO certification, improved our production efficiency, rewritten/improved our X-904 product manual and added two new OSHA spec man riding baskets. We will continue this improvement and have other projects on the board.
Am I ready for this downturn to be over….heck yes! But we have used this time wisely and we’ll come out being better for the experience.
Thank you for your confidence, your support and your business!
