Custom Made

Fibrex Corporation Creates Giant Pipes
from Resins That Resist Corrosive Chemicals

by Michael Barrett

In business, surviving through difficult times may require drastic measures, but if one’s willing to take the gamble and apply some creative financing, as Rick Watkins did with Fibrex Corporation back in 1982, the results can be quite successful.

“When we started, we were undercapitalized — you might say we were noncapitalized — but over time, we gradually began to become profitable,” he recounts.

It started in 1976 when a group of people broke away from a Bellingham fiberglass pipe maker to found Fibrex in Burlington, but despite large loans from the Small Business Administration and because of tough recessionary times, they just couldn’t make a go of it.

Watkins, meanwhile, had become a salesman for the firm, and when the bank put it up for sale, he bought it. He first went to Fibrex’s suppliers and, despite losses incurred through the previous ownership, only one out of four turned down his credit. He then approached the newly laid-off employees and said: “‘Look, the old company is gone. I believe I can get orders. Will you work for me on a contractual basis? We’ll estimate how many hours it will take to do a project and you’ll get paid for that?’ They agreed, and it took about three months to get enough profit to change,” Watkins recalls.

Since then, Fibrex has slowly climbed the ladder of success, with an occasional bump along the way, and is today a viable, unique business in the valley, located catercorner from the Burlington Fire Hall at South Spruce and Sharon streets.

 

Building fiberglass ducts

“We do custom manufacturing of corrosion- or chemical-resistant ducts or pipes using resins,” Watkins explains. “This is not for general purpose, like that used in boat building, but for chemical piping systems, mainly chlorine headers and ducts used in gas-collection systems.”

Chlorine — employed in a wide range of applications, especially water purification and the manufacture of PVC pipe — is processed at 195°F. and is exceptionally corrosive, Watkins points out. “It can eat through steel in a matter of days or weeks. We developed a proprietary method of producing seamless headers.” Where nozzles are connected to the pipe — a point at which failure most often occurs — seams do not exist in the Fibrex process.

In the company’s description: “Fibrex Corporation has become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of application-specific FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastics) pipe and duct solutions for corrosive industrial processes,” with customers in the chlor-alkali, pulp-and-paper and chemical-process industries. It produces “pipe, duct, scrubbers and vessels using six manufacturing stations for filament winding and hand lay-up in 40-foot lengths.”

In one huge room of the 24,000-square-foot factory, huge pipes rotate on shafts while workers “paint” on resins one layer at a time. Other rooms contain large, fiberglass tanks used to store water and other liquids. The workforce varies from 14 to 50, depending on the orders, and layoffs rarely last more than five weeks.

Some of Fibrex’s end users are: Allied, Chevron and Dow chemical companies; General Electric Plastics; Saudi Petrochemical and Shell Oil; Martin Marietta and Teledyne; Bonneville Power and Pacific Gas and Electric; and Boise Cascade, Crown Zellerbach, Kimberly-Clark and Weyerhaeuser Paper.

“Sales run from a low of $2 million to a high of $3.25 million (a year),” Watkins states. “When sales are down to $2 million, it’s break even for us. When we get up to $3 million, profitability is pretty good. . . . It’s difficult to synchronize orders to customers, so there are lulls.”

One of Watkins least-favorite duties is finding good, experienced workers, and this has been a major goal of his. A few years ago, disgruntled by the lack of response from area newspaper classified ads, he strung a “help wanted” banner across the front of his plant, with some results.

“We’re not going to get people with experience in this kind of business,” he laments. “They all take a certain amount of training. Those who come from businesses where they get similar experiences can grasp it easier.” Boat building, where fiberglass is used extensively, comes to mind, but that industry is booming right now and doesn’t have a lot of unemployed workers willing to make the shift.

With three big orders coming in, Fibrex is just coming off one of its biggest lulls in two years and expects to be up to full capacity this fall. Brazil has become a good customer, with large contracts coming in. Fibrex has done well with orders also from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and South Korea over the past few years.

Watkins, 58, and his wife, Linda, are also active in the community. She’s a Kiwanian, and both donated time and money to the new children’s waterpark in Burlington’s Maiben Park. She does much of the accounting for the company and serves as comptroller and purchasing agent. Watkins also participates in the Skagit Manufacturing Network, an informal gathering of local owners who exchange ideas and business strategies.

“The network is very therapeutic,” he says. “When I leave a monthly meeting, I always feel better.”