March-April_2022 - 33

Johnson said they get a lot of requests for stripping paint along
with general inspections for aircraft, particularly the BBJs, and
there has been no slow down in those requests.
" One portion of our business is we do a lot of government
contracts as well. And those typically don't slow down much
during crisis situations, " added Johnson. " We're thankful to have
what little bit of that sector we do. It allows us to keep people,
even if it gets slow, we can scale back. I mean, I run about 50%
contractors and 50% direct on the paint side. Luckily enough,
there's enough government work that people try and send our
way that it enables us to keep our core people. "
Post-Pandemic Needs
As they turn their eyes to a, hopefully, pandemic-free future,
the major concern in the painting business is keeping up with
the new demand.
" I'm pretty sure that the next year we are going to double what
we're doing. Because we pretty much double what we did in 2019
of respondents
have used their
current primary
paint system for
OVER 10 YEARS.
on 2021, even though we had the pandemic. But the pandemic
is the one that helped us be where we are, " Arredondo said. " We
have 32 people now. That means that we are going to have like
65 next year. That's going to be more opportunities for more
second-chance opportunity employees. "
" Coming out of the pandemic, we're just hoping to continue
to be proactive, " said Johnson. " We're trying to keep stock of
items that we don't run out of. And I think any, not just a paint
shop, but anyone that deals in stuff that materials is, you're in
the business. You just well stock up and try to stay ahead of it
because we're going to hit, we've already seen it. You're going to
hit lead time issues that you can't deliver. "
And Prideaux said their priority is to just be able to do more
aircraft.
" Possibly expand our footprint, " he continued, " and we're
just leaving a lot of money on the table. I hate telling people
no. I love to say yes. So just being able to have a place to do
the work. Unfortunately, you can't always just throw heads at
it, right, manpower, in our business, it, it doesn't always help.
So you've got to have the facility. So that's one of our goals for
the future. "
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March-April_2022

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