Sling, Rigging Maker Hopes to Hang With Students

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When Vernon’s Lift-It Manufacturing Co. Inc., a maker of heavy-duty slings and rigging equipment, was looking for a new home, Chief Executive Mike Gelskey Sr. wanted more space for finished goods and manufacturing equipment – but he also wanted a classroom.

For nearly 30 years, Gelskey’s company has offered training programs, teaching customers and potential customers how to safely operate Lift-It’s products, which are used with cranes and other construction equipment to lift parts and machinery that can weigh upwards of 100,000 pounds. Until now, classes have been held at job sites or in rented conference centers.

“The message we espouse is accident prevention through education,” Gelskey said. “Thirty years ago, training wasn’t fashionable, but I would meet with anyone who would listen to me preach about proper use. Now, everyone that is involved in this type of product wants their folks to be trained.”

Indeed, there’s been so much demand for the programs, both from small contractors and huge companies such as Southern California Edison, that Gelskey wanted a permanent training center. That’s what Lift-It is building in its new 39,000-square-foot plant in Pomona.

The company moved into the new building from a 17,000-square-foot site in Vernon. Construction of the training center should wrap up next month.

Lift-It now partners with Knoxville, Tenn.’s Rigging Institute LLC and, starting this summer, will offer 11 different training programs, from one-day sessions for rigging workers to four-day sessions for certified rigging trainers. Programs cost from $545 to $3,295.

By having a dedicated training center, Gelskey said he can offer smaller, more frequent classes, meaning Edison and other big clients don’t have to send all their workers at once.

“It gives them the opportunity to schedule them out over a year and they don’t have to shut their operation down for a day,” he said

While Gelskey started offering training sessions because he saw his products being misused or poorly maintained, he acknowledged that the programs, which are open to noncustomers, also help market the company.

“There’s no expectation that any student will become a customer,” he said. “But when we spend 8, 16 or 24 hours with an individual, there’s a bonding experience. Students like what they see. They like how we manufacture our products.”

Pipe Dream

L.A. plastic pipe manufacturer JM Eagle wants to hook up to the still-growing Asian market and has broken ground on the first of three planned plants in China.

The company, based near the Los Angeles International Airport, plans to spend a combined $400 million on the plants, its first outside of the United States. JM Eagle, the world’s largest manufacturer of plastic pipes, operates 22 American plants, including five in California, and now exports pipe to Asia. But company officials said construction and infrastructure projects, especially in China, have created enough demand to justify manufacturing across the Pacific.

“China is the (world’s) second largest economy and needs a durable, innovative and strong infrastructure. Bringing JM Eagle’s technology and production know-how to China will benefit 1.4 billion people,” said Walter Wang, chief executive of JM Eagle, in a statement.

JM Eagle broke ground on the new plant in Hebei Province, near Beijing, last month. The company could not say when the plant will start operating or when construction of the next two Chinese facilities will start.

Company spokesman Marcus Galindo said the Chinese plants will supply only Asian customers and will not export product to the U.S.

Construction Coming

Specialty construction firm ARB Inc. of Lake Forest is betting on a ramp-up in construction work, recently opening an equipment yard in Carson to serve what it expects will be a growing number of job sites around Los Angeles County.

ARB, a subsidiary of Dallas construction firm Primoris Services Corp., is already drilling tunnels for oil and gas lines at the Port of Los Angeles, and building an addition to an El Segundo power plant.

Company spokeswoman Currin McDevitt said ARB expects to work on more projects in the L.A. basin over the next several years.

“We do a lot of work in the area already, but we anticipate being awarded more,” said McDevitt, who could not detail additional contracts the company hopes to win.

The new Carson yard has an 11,500-square-foot storage and maintenance building, as well as about 4 acres of yard space. ARB will store all manner of construction and drilling equipment at the site.

Before the yard opened in February, ARB’s closest equipment yard was in Lake Forest, about 40 miles southeast of Carson.

Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.

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