Delta

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The threat of increased terrorism in the face of U.S. cruise-missile attacks have the phones ringing furiously at Delta Scientific Corp.

The Valencia-based company, which among other things makes heavy-duty barriers used to keep would-be terrorists away from embassies and other government installations, has seen a 50 percent increase in requests for price quotes since the Aug. 7 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, said David Dickinson, the company’s vice president.

“It will take a couple of weeks for those calls to translate into sales, but with this and other business we had coming in, we expect sales to increase 70 to 100 percent in fiscal 1999,” he said.

Even before the recent bombings, the company had been hiring additional employees and preparing to add another working shift. Delta has also been searching for an additional 10,000 square feet of space as it outgrows its 50,000-square-foot plant in the Valencia Industrial Center.

Delta Scientific makes a variety of parking and vehicle control devices, from low-security tire spikes and parking-garage entry gates to high-security, heavy-duty barriers that can be raised and lowered hydraulically and are capable of stopping a speeding car or truck.

The company holds 14 patents on various devices, and its high-security barriers are in place at 125 embassies, 50 federal courthouses and about 85 nuclear power plants. This includes the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and U.S. Supreme Court buildings in Washington, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank, the United Nations and the World Trade Center in New York.

The barriers come in three styles: a “bollard” system in which metal cylinders are embedded in concrete and can be raised and lowered to grant vehicles clearance, a ramp-like metal barrier that can also be raised and lowered hydraulically, and sliding, crash-resistant gates.

Even before the bombings, the company had been on a growth curve. Sales grew from $6.9 million in 1997 to $8.5 million in the 1998 fiscal year ended June 30. Officials expect the recent bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, and the U.S. response, to help drive fiscal 1999 sales to a record $14.4 million.

Harry Dickinson, the family-run company’s president and founder, said an age-old need powers Delta’s success.

“If you look at any property of value it could be an embassy, a warehouse, a private residence being able to protect it against forced entry is pretty fundamental,” he said. “The mode of attack is just getting more sophisticated.”

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