UPDATED Friday, Sept 27 10 a.m. (eastern)
ASI Media will provide updates on how industry firms are doing as reports become available. Email [email protected] with information on how your company is contending with the storm.
Hurricane Helene has Florida and southeastern U.S. states in its sights, and promotional products firms there are taking action in advance of what’s predicted to be a major storm.
Counselor Top 40 supplier Koozie Group (asi/40480), for instance, announced that it’s closing its Clearwater, FL, facilities on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 25. The aim is to reopen the evening of Thursday, Sept. 26, if it’s safe to do so. Koozie Group noted that shipping carriers have suspended service temporarily and that mandatory evacuation notices have been issued by county officials.
“Our support teams, including customer service, continue to operate remotely during this time and are available to help with your questions,” the company said in a statement. “Our Minnesota and Missouri facilities remain open and are operating as usual; items produced there, including calendars, Sticky Note products, chairs, blankets and bags, are not impacted.”
Elaborating, Koozie Group said that it’s suspending 24-hour service for certain products, including pens and most drinkware, that are produced and/or decorated in Clearwater.
The goal is to resume 24-hour service for such goods on Monday, Sept. 30. The firm said it will inform distributors about any orders that may be impacted. Customers can find the most up-to-date order information by logging in to their kooziegroup.com account or via the Koozie Group Tracker.
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“We’ll continue to keep customers updated as the situation unfolds, and we appreciate their understanding as we work to keep our employees safe,” Koozie Group said in a statement, adding: “We expect the impact to our customers to be minimal, as we’ve worked ahead this week in our Florida facilities in anticipation of needing to close.”
Meanwhile, Largo, FL-based Counselor Top 40 supplier Hit Promotional Products (asi/61125) said it has been preparing for the storm for several days, including physically prepping facilities as much as possible and working ahead “as much as we can to minimize/avoid delays that may be felt by our customers due to any closures,” Chief Operating Officer Doug Donnell told ASI Media.
The company had initially intended to operate as normal on Thursday but subsequently shut down after its first shift. Hit was to reassess the situation after the worst of the storm passed on Thursday night.
“We plan on being open Friday but won’t know what capacity we are operating at until after we assess Thursday night,” said Donnell. “We need to see how many people are able to make it to work. We also plan on working two full shifts on Saturday at this point.”
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Other suppliers along the Gulf Coast were also dealing with interruptions, but they remained optimistic that the disruption would be short lived.
Ryan Tickle, vice president of sales for Cannabis Promotions (asi/42996), said that the company closed its St. Petersburg facility on Thursday out of an abundance of caution.
“Employee safety is our number one priority,” Tickle told ASI Media. “We don’t want staff driving in high winds or through flooded streets. We had to take some extra measures around our facility, but luckily it’s a fortress and in one of the highest parts of the city.”
Tickle added that the company’s normal operating procedure anticipates sporadic interruptions. He’s hopeful that customers won’t notice any prolonged delays.
“We will be able to catch up in the coming days,” he said. “Luckily we under-promise and over-deliver, so we typically ship a few days before our lead times.”
Hurricane Helene roared ashore in Florida’s Big Bend region Thursday as a Category 4 storm. The punishing winds reached 140 mph and the ocean fumed, with catastrophic storm surge reported.
By Friday morning, Helene had weakened into a still-significant tropical storm. More than 4 million customers were without power across Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas the morning of Sept. 27.
