Donek Fire!
9/30/02: Donek Factory Fire Press Release
by Sean Martin / Donek Snowboards
Donek Snowboards Core/Finish Shop Burns
On Monday, September 30, our core and finish facility caught fire and all of it's contents were destroyed. The building was also lost as a result of the intense heat. The building and its contents were insured and we will continue to deliver boards. The fire is believed to have been caused by a flame treating process in our operation.
As luck would have it we have another unused building on the property that is roughly ½ the size of the damaged one. We have a contractor lined up to finish that building to allow us to finish boards and produce some cores until the damaged building can be replaced. Finishing the smaller building will take about 2 weeks.
We had finished a number of cores on Saturday and moved them to our assembly shop. We believe we have adequate Axis, Freecarve, Incline, Wide, and Sasquatch cores to last us into January. The cores for custom and other carve shapes were still in the core shop at the time of the fire. We have lined up a woodworking shop in Denver that can help us reproduce those core blanks in about 2 weeks. This is the only area where we see any delays for current orders. We still hope to deliver those boards by Thanksgiving. This should be before there is any appreciable snow on the ground.
I am confident that we will make it through this disaster stronger and better equipped than before. Thank you for all your comments and support.
Sean Martin
Donek Snowboards
11/10/02: Donek Snowboards Recovering from the Fire
by Sean Martin / Donek Snowboards
On Monday November 4 we shipped out the first batch of boards since our fire. We have purchased all the equipment we will need to complete the season. It has been set up in a building about half the size of our previous core/finish shop. Although a little cramped, we will be able to function at 100% capacity in that space.
We have a building on order to replace the one that burned down. It is actually 3 times the size and will encompass the entire operation. We anticipate the buildings completion some time in April.
Although this has been a terrible disaster, it has given us certain advantages. In purchasing new equipment, we have taken the opportunity to correct mistakes made previously in choosing equipment. As a result, we will be able to make even higher quality boards with greater efficiency.
Sean & Jenifer Martin
Donek Snowboards
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