Industrial protection products in Salem produce non-public protective equipment, but PPE for Covid-19. That’s why he expects a drop in earnings of at least $2. 2 million this year, according to revelations made through two federally funded systems in which he participated: the Payment Check Protection Program. and the state-run Main Street Aid Fund.
“The last thing other people think about right now are in shoes and glasses designed to make an impact,” said Rick Murphy, president of the company.
Founded in 1977 through Murphy’s father, the company customizes protective devices for commercials and workers.
“It’s for the workers on the site, yet there are few workers on the site, and even when there are other people, they don’t allow outside vendors,” Murphy lamented. At first, it laid off almost all of its 32 workers. “We’ve never had layoffs of any kind” before that, he said.
With the help of PPP, he was able to bring them back, “but when you just don’t have a task that’s the other challenge. “
IPP seeks to meet this challenge by contacting companies online, installing protective devices for on-site visits, and promoting thermal scanners. Business resumes slowly, but not en masse, under any circumstances. Our biggest quarter is April, May and June, so we have higher stocks in anticipation of a great spring, “said Murphy.
Instead, he expects a big loss, which is why IPP searched through the Main Street fund.
IPP isn’t the only one. New Hampshire’s leading law firms, high-end restaurants, overseas brands, established-structure companies, well-known experts, all affected by coronavirus, have said they have suffered massive losses even after gaining billions or even millions. PPP dollars.
According to the revelations, nearly 5,400 New Hampshire employers forecast a $2. 6 billion drop in profits this year due to the pandemic. Employers obtained assistance from the state’s Main Street Fund, which went to companies with profits of less than $20 million. organizations that raise cash from other sources, in addition to child care and child care providers, farmers, nonprofits and freelancers, were excluded.
The $ 332. 5 million on Main Street covered 17% of a company’s expected losses after taking into account federal assistance, adding the PPP, which the government fund was intended to supplement.
The PPP and Main Street Fund were made imaginable through the federal CARES Act. The PPP consists of bank grant loans, approved and guaranteed through the US Small Business Administration, to corporations with fewer than 500 employees. Hampshire companies had earned $ 2. 55 billion in APP funding.
The Main Street Fund, which expired on June 12, earned the largest allocation of the $1. 25 billion worth of CARES Fund. He went to smaller businesses without conditions. Limited to $350,000 according to the company, it is based on the difference between last year’s earnings and this year’s earnings, after subtracting some of the earned from PPP and all earned from other federal programs, adding the SBA emergency injury disaster loan. . program.
Main Street was designed as a complement to the SBA’s programs, and approximately four-fifths of Main Street beneficiaries earned a total of $440. 7 million in P3 funds. (Approximately one-third earned nearly $70 million in other grants and loans. )
These are the systems and numbers, but what about the individual corporations involved?Why do they expect such large losses and what do they do to them?
NH Business Review tested the corporations that benefited the most from either system: those that won the maximum principal public loan of $ 350,000 and earned at least the same amount of PPP money.
These were also expected to suffer the biggest losses – their minimum expected decrease in earnings ranged from $ 2. 2 million to more than $ 3 million.
But many corporations said their losses were even greater, even though they were reluctant to disclose the exact amount.
“We go through our revenue,” said Michael Boyle, CEO of Boyle Energy Services.
The corporate was able to put his workforce on the payroll in July thanks to PPP. The Main Street budget was used to pay for insurance and the electricity bill, but in August Boyle had to lay off his workers to the fullest. He’s expecting some other P3 funding circular, but what if he doesn’t make it?
“My paintings remain optimistic,” he said. We’re going one way. We have been in difficult areas, however, this is the most difficult area of all time.
Clients of Rath Young Pignatelli’s lawyers on how to get cash for the coronaviruses, but that wasn’t enough to compensate for the company’s losses when many of those clients and courts closed their doors.
“We actually suffered a loss of earnings due to the downturn in the economy,” said Christopher Sullivan, president of the Concord law corporation, which employs 49 people. “We were luckier than most. We had no layoffs. Our corporate total began operating remotely. Some companies have not been able to do so. “
The company has earned credit for federal and state programs, “because we have compatibility in unit categories. We are suffering significant losses. It’s not something we need to communicate about, but we’re in the same boat as everyone else.
Magic Foods Restaurant Group is one of the few corporations to suffer the largest minimum loss: between $2. 5 million and $3 million.
“That’s a conservative figure,” said Scott Ouellette, owner of the Lake District’s luxury restaurant chain.
The company, which had to close its Canoe restaurant in mid-May, has five locations: Canoe Restaurant in Center Harbor, O Bistro in Wolfeboro, O Steaks & Seafood in Concord and Laconia and Suna in Sunapee.
Ouellette said he had gone ahead because “we made a massive bet when we didn’t use the PPP cash in the first place. “
Original PPP regulations stipulated that it had to spend three-quarters of its 199 workers within 8 weeks of receiving the budget on April 3, but restaurants were not even open for food until May 18, and some other month before they simply settled for a limited interior to eat.
“I don’t think they’d stay 8 weeks, ” said Ouellette, and he was right.
The regulations were replaced to give beneficiaries 24 weeks to spend the funds, and he was able to rent the maximum of his workers when they needed them at most. But there is still a six-foot distance requirement to eat indoors and 50% limits for indoor seating in the 4 southern counties.
With alfresco dining and a strong takeout business, the restaurant chain can take care of 80% of what it once served, if diners came, Ouellette said.
“Even when it’s a better internal and external day, we’re still below our current capacity. Concord is the slowest. It’s probably a 60% drop,” Ouellette said. “We don’t know what will happen this fall when tourism disappears and outdoor seating disappears. “
Restaurants are the only corporations that expect such losses.
I’d think Air Solutions
“There’s a lot of discussion,” admitted Olaf Zwickau, 18-year-old president of the Manchester-based firm, “but it’s not that simple. “
Air Solutions measures air to meet various standards for indoor air pollutants, primarily for new structures. Construction was thought to be a major industry in New Hampshire, yet in many states it came to a halt and Air Solutions had to lay off up to 83 employees. She was able to bring the staff back thanks to the PPP, then the structure was resumed. The company has also started marketing “our Covid defense solution” for existing buildings.
“We’ve had a lot of success, a lot of interest,” Zwickau said, although it’s much less complicated to budget for ventilation in a new structure than to renovate existing ones. “It is a slow process. More complicated to sell. “
The company is busy now, he said, but “I’m very, very scared of a momentary wave. “In addition, it is now catching up with the paintings that have been suspended and the new paintings are slow to arrive.
So are you expecting even more than the $ 2. 5 to $ 3 million in losses that are expected? “I can’t wait for the numbers right now. It is too much uncertainty. It has been six very difficult months that I would like to forget. “
But it’s not just about numbers. ” These are other people we had to abandon. We rehired them with the government, but I have to tell them, “I can’t wait how long. “I feel like I’m playing with other people’s emotions. This is the most complicated thing as an employer. They’re other good, tough people,” he said.
Cubicle Solutions, a Windham company that employs 114 people, is one of the five companies with the largest expected profit loss because it lost profits when the companies closed and also because many more workers work at home. Cubicle now offers social distancing barriers for workplaces and space.
The others are Jewell Instruments, a Manchester avionics sensor, meter and instrumentation manufacturer and distributor for industries ranging from aerospace to medical. It employs 104 people. People’s Linen Service, a Keene company employing 162 people, the fifth.
The next point of more than 70 corporations predicted a drop in profits between $ 2. 2 million and $ 2. 5 million. They come with 603 Manufacturing, a Hudson manufacturer of cables and electronic mechanical assemblies for the defense, aerospace, commercial and medical industries. Most of its 1,500 employees paint at 4 offshore facilities in China and one in Taiwan, and it has secured an APP loan for 93 employees, possibly in the United States.
603 is a split by RF Logic, a supplier of defense contractor BAE Systems founded through former BAE worker Sanders Associates.
603 Manufacturing responded to inquiries, but Brian Blanchette, APR’s vice president of sales and operations
The company sells cranes, maintains them, and is itself a towing service. Decreasing traffic and structure hurt the company, but thanks to P3, it was able to recover the maximum of its 60 employees. The challenge is that few other people buy the trucks, which sell for between $ 150,000 and $ 800,000. “We have a few million dollars in inventory,” Blanchette said.
The value of moving them has dropped almost at cost, he said. This would possibly mean that the company would not possibly take on the loss of sales it expected, just a drop in profits, which would possibly mean it would have to pay some of the Main Street money.
“It would hurt us,” he said. Hopefully Main Street takes that into account, but we agree to make a profit if you allow everyone to work.
You can contact Bob Sanders at bsanders@nhbr. com.