FORT WAYNE – When snow piles up, so do losses for some local businesses.
Several of Allen County’s largest employers, including General Motors Co., Vera Bradley Co., Parkview Physicians’ Group and Fort Wayne Metals Research Products Corp., closed at least one day – or multiple shifts – during this week’s blizzard.
Many retailers and restaurants sent staff home during the heaviest snowfall, locking their doors to any customers brave enough to battle the elements. Glenbrook Square, for example, opened late and closed early Wednesday. The mall was open only from noon to 6 p.m.
The storm’s total economic effect on Fort Wayne is unknown, but Ball State University economist Michael Hicks said his best guess is “in the hundreds of thousands” of dollars for lost commerce and local government spending to clear roads.
Fort Wayne Metals lost about 2 1/2 production shifts, said Bob Myers, executive vice president.
The manufacturer draws wire through diamond dies to stretch it as fine as or finer than a human hair. The wire is used primarily for medical applications such as surgical guide wires, implantable defibrillators, pacemaker leads and orthodontics.
The company restarted production at noon Wednesday.
Myers declined to put a dollar value on the loss, which will force the company to pay some of its 530 local workers overtime.
“It will be costly,” he said. “But it’s Mother Nature, so what can you do?”
GM’s Allen County truck assembly plant closed for three shifts because of the severe weather, spokeswoman Stephanie Jentgen said.
GM usually produces 1,428 trucks – or 476 a shift – each weekday at the plant, where workers assemble Chevrolet Silverados and GMC Sierras.
“Production has been moved to this Saturday, three shifts, beginning with third shift starting Friday night,” Jentgen said in an e-mail.
Jentgen said she couldn’t estimate the company’s loss, but it won’t include overtime.
Orval Plumlee is president of United Auto Workers Local 2209, the union that represents local GM hourly workers. Plumlee said under the current contract, workers don’t start earning overtime until after they’ve worked 40 hours in a week.
FXI-Foamex Innovations lost at least one shift Wednesday, plant manager Rich Strozyk said. He’s been on the road since Monday, driving to Indianapolis and back in a failed attempt to catch a flight to Florida. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was sitting in the local airport waiting to board a plane to Atlanta.
The company’s plant at 3005 Commercial Road makes technical products for the medical, aerospace, defense and electronics industries. Workers will probably be scheduled over the weekend to catch up, he said.
The cost of closing might be about $20,000, Strozyk said.
“I don’t think it’s terrible,” he said of the amount. “It’s probably more of an inconvenience for our customers.”
The plant manager will breathe a sigh of relief once machinery has been restarted, however. Sometimes equipment doesn’t restart easily in cold weather, he said.
No such worries at Steel Dynamics Inc. Spokesman Fred Warner said the Fort Wayne-based company’s mini-mills just don’t shut down.
Unlike just-in-time assembly operations, including GM, Steel Dynamics’ workforce doesn’t have to wait around for raw materials to show up, Warner said. The only possible interruption in steel production is a power outage, he said.
Six or seven Kroger Co.-owned groceries lost power during the blizzard. But that was throughout the Central Division, spokesman John Elliott said. None was in northeast Indiana.
Otherwise, stores stayed open in Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Each store makes arrangements for getting critical staff to work.
The retail operations also lean heavily on Kroger’s distribution centers – including one in Bluffton – to keep store shelves stocked, Elliott said. Extra shipments left distribution centers on Sunday and Monday to prepare for the rush of shoppers before the storm.
The nearest frozen- and refrigerated-food distribution center – in Shelby County, southeast of Indianapolis – was under a Level 1 snow emergency Wednesday. That kept trucks off the road and could lead to shortages of some products in Fort Wayne-area Kroger and Scott’s Food & Pharmacy stores today, Elliott said.
Other products might be slow in getting replenished because some manufacturers deliver directly to stores. Kraft and General Mills, for example, operate Chicago-area distribution centers that received more snow than northeast Indiana.
One brand that should be piled high on local grocery shelves is Aunt Millie’s.
Perfection Bakery’s seven bakeries, including five in Michigan, made all scheduled deliveries throughout the storm, President John Popp said. He doesn’t think the company lost any revenue related to the blizzard.
The Fort Wayne-based company also delivered 120,000 extra loaves of bread Tuesday, about 5 percent more than the normal volume.
“We have a pretty dedicated crew, and all our routes delivered,” he said. “We go through sleet and snow and do the best we can because people expect bread to be on the shelves.”
