Upsize Growth Challenge: El-Hy-Mec
UPSIZE GROWTH CHALLENGE :: EL-HY-MEC
Freshened brand may
help Permac to 25
percent growth goal
El-Hy-Mec Inc. has doubled the number of customers, from 12 to 24, for its preventative maintenance program and reached $1.4 million in sales.
?We?re back on track,? says Becky Lawrence, vice president of the Maple Grove company owned by her brother, Mike DeJarlais, which repairs and maintains industrial equipment. She says the sales mark is the highest since before Sept. 11, 2001.
Promoting the preventative service was a key recommendation from the Upsize Growth Challenge experts in 2005, when DeJarlais and Lawrence participated. Their marketing efforts paid off as many customers cut their own repair staffs in favor of hiring an outside company.
?We are continually putting our marketing gizmos out there, but to do more we need people,? Lawrence says. ?We?re not like a Maytag repairman, drumming our thumbs. It?s quite the opposite.?
The company?s greatest challenge remains hiring and retaining qualified mechanics to do the work, ?but that?s a good problem to have.?
Lawrence says she recently lost some of her key staff ?because they turned out not to be key.? A recent advertising campaign for employees ?got nothing,? Lawrence says.
Becky Lawrence, El-Hy-Mec Inc.: 763.533.0606;
bl*******@*******ec.com; www.el-hy-mec.com