Mark Taylor, Executive Vice President, Bradford White
Corporation, shares about their COVID-19 experience.
How has COVID-19 impacted your business?
Once we were confirmed as essential and the procedures and protocols were set, we transitioned into a fairly business as usual status, with all the additional safety measures in place. For now, our order volumes have remained strong.
We heard you donated tanks to assist medical facilities set up to treat COVID-19 patents.
How did you learn about the need?
In many cases, it was our Bradford White representatives most closely associated with these field hospitals who facilitated getting our products to the locations.
For example, our manufacturers’ representative in the Chicago area, Friedman & Dorrans Sales, Inc, provided our products in the McCormick Place Convention Center. The installer was O’Sullivan Plumbing Inc.
In NYC, our local manufacturers’ representative, Dellon Sales Co., took care of the hot water needs for the Javits Center and other facilities in the NYC metro area with Bradford White water heaters.
Similar situations have occurred through our representatives in the Detroit and Denver areas, as well as in facilities in the UK.
Why did you decide to get involved?
How could we not get involved? Hot water is what we do and it is critical for proper cleaning and sanitization. Without dependable hot water equipment, hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices and more could not operate. Not to mention, the millions of homes and other types of businesses that require dependable hot water resources every day.
How many tanks were donated?
The number of water heaters and tanks donated varies by the size and needs of each location. Some have used as few as two of our commercial water heaters. Other facilities have upwards of 10 products combining, storage tanks and water heaters. The exact total is not known as we are still outfitting additional facilities at this time (April 2020).
Do you foresee any permanent changes at Bradford White based on the pandemic?
It is difficult to know exactly what that end game will look like given there are still a lot of unknowns. What we do know is that hot water equipment will always be needed. It will be needed to insure that homes and business have the hot water and heat they need for health, safety and comfort.