You remember the COVID era, right? Richard Hilburn, owner of The Monument Place in McAlester, OK, certainly does. It was when he moved his growing business, which designs, makes and sells tombstones, to a new location on the other side of town. Unfortunately, the power grid was a little sketchy at his new location.
“We smoked our air compressor,” Richard said. And that was going to be a problem. Not just a problem, an impending disaster since “Everything we do requires air.” Richard searched high and low. He checked with suppliers in all the major cities, as far away as New York. But it was the COVID era. With empty shelves. And supply chain shortages everywhere. No one had anything. He couldn’t even get a rental.
“We were at a dead stand,” he said. “No one cares that you’re down. No one cares that it’s my life on the line. We have employees. They’re not working. That puts their families in jeopardy.”
With downtime running about $10,000 to $15,000 per week, he finally connected with Air Mac, an independent Texas-based distributor of industrial air compressors, blowers and vacuum pumps. Ironically, they didn’t have what Richard needed either. But they were determined to help. And sometimes “showing up” is half the battle.
Air Mac immediately recognized that the situation called for a two-part approach: a quick fix and a permanent solution.
First, Air Mac brought in a “basic spare” to get The Monument Place up and running while they waited for a replacement. Then, a few weeks later, they brought in a brand new 25-HP Kaishan KRSB belt-drive rotary screw air compressor. And things finally started looking up.
“[It’s an] impressive machine. You open it up, and it looks like it’s well made. You can see the quality in it. I would tell someone, 100%, to go buy it. Don’t second-guess it. Just do it. Because they work.”
— Richard Hilburn, Owner, The Monument Place
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