May 15, 2006
MiBiz West
Karen Gentry

MUSKEGON — This hurricane season FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) plans to be prepared with more products staged in hurricane-prone regions.

Muskegon-based Five Peaks, a subsidiary of Ameriform Inc. should benefit through the sale of more of its porta-johns, sinks and chemicals used in both of those products, according to Ameriform President Dan Harris.

After last year’s destructive hurricane season, business for Five Peaks enjoyed “a big increase in business,” Harris said.

“This year we’re (Five Peaks) doing approximately 25,000 units and that puts us as the third largest in the nation,” said Harris about Five Peaks that was started in 2003-2004. Harris expects the sale of porta-johns sold due to hurricanes to increase from the 4,000 units sold because of Hurricane Katrina.

“The government will contact our customers down in the affected regions. We actually set up crews who assembled units for our customers for hurricane relief in Baton Rouge,” Harris said.

Many of Five Peaks’ portable sanitation products are also being shipped to China because of all the construction going on in that developing country. As most of Ameriform’s products are big and bulky the company plans to manufacture some of its products in China for the Asian market in the future.

“We’re building tooling strictly for the Asian markets and sending some of our product direct from here to match up what is made in China,” Harris said.

Hurricane relief, China and increased shipping for the military have added up to unexpected growth.

“We didn’t anticipate the growth at all. It’s exceeded our expectations,” said Harris, noting that employment including some seasonal help has jumped to just under 300 workers in Muskegon.

Harris said Ameriform is looking at expanding into export markets for its KL Industries with its line of kayaks, canoes, paddleboats and fishing boats. Two to three new product lines will be introduced in 2007 including a new line of kayaks and couple of lines of paddleboats, Harris said.

“We’re really going to concentrate our efforts on growing that division,” Harris told MiBiz.

Muskegon’s “fantastic” employment base has help the company grow.

“We anticipate some significant growth in the next couple of years,” Harris said.

COPYRIGHT 2005. MIBIZ NETWORK.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This article appeared in the May 15, 2006 issue of MiBiz, read by upper management executives in West and Southwest Michigan. Print subscriptions are free to qualified individuals who do business in West and Southwest Michigan. For further information about MiBiz Network, visit www.mibiz.com.