Petron Update

Petron Update

There is a lot of activity going on at Petron.

For starters, we are closing in on the end of our fiscal 2015.  With a month left  in our fiscal year it appears we will exceed prior year’s sales numbers and more importantly set another profit record. Our sales budget for 2015 will not be achieved due to strong head winds in the mining sector throughout the world. But in spite of the slowdown in mining worldwide we are still gaining new customers to offset those that have been idled due to low prices in copper, gold and iron. In addition, we have earned significant new sales in our private label business to a major equipment OEM as well as new third party toll business with a major oil company. All of this combined equals a new profit record for Petron.

Besides the normal day to day activity at Petron we have now commenced on our $ 4 million dollar expansion in New Berlin. We have filled up our existing space at Petron with ever increasing growth since we last expanded in 2006. We have literally run out of room to safely and efficiently accommodate future business.

In the Fall of 2014, we contracted with Graef Engineering to help us design our expansion. After many months of engineering studies and meetings with Petron personnel we developed a final plan. We then went out for bids. In early September 2015 we signed a contract with Hunzinger to be the General Contractor for our expansion. As I write this, Hunzinger is working on footings and walls for the warehouse expansion. In another couple of weeks they will start on footings and walls for the Plant 4 expansion.

In the warehouse we are adding 9,000 square feet along with space for 3 more truck docks. With much improved traffic flow and accessibility for the longer trucks.

Our new Plant 4 will be 14,000 square feet. It will give us the space we need to add new storage tanks for raw materials plus additional mixers to keep up with production demands.  We will also gain a bigger and more functional bulk truck loading dock. We will also incorporate addition space for our automatic packaging line that will go in once everything else is completed.

For the next few months Petron will be crowded with contractors and our day to day operations will be less than ideal. But for anyone who has gone through a home remodel while you are living in your house you know it is inconvenient—but the end result is worth the temporary inconvenience.