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February 22, 2021

Promo Firms Grapple With Texas Winter Storm

Many companies and individuals within the promo products industry were without power and water for nearly a week.

By  John Corrigan

As the snow began to fall on Valentine’s Day evening, San Antonio-based You Name It Specialties (asi/365123) announced that it would be closed the next day.

Line of cars in snow storm

Josh King, CEO of You Name It Specialties, thought it would be a minor, temporary inconvenience rather than the Texas “snowpocalypse” it quickly became. He and his employees were part of the more than 4 million customers who lost power amid freezing temperatures on February 15. And then the water stopped running.

“There’s nothing like sitting in the dark, bundled up in winter weather attire watching a dribbling water faucet and not knowing when the misery will end,” King said. “A single day away from the office became an entire week worrying about how to secure power, water and food.”

Prior to the storm, Austin resident Nick Lateur received notification from the power company to expect rolling blackouts. So, the director of national accounts - specialty brands at Top 40 supplier HPG (asi/61966) charged up some power banks. Luckily, he wasn’t without power for as long as most Texas residents. “A lot of my job is doing video meetings with salespeople and you can’t do that effectively from your phone,” Lateur said. “That, coupled with no Wi-Fi, put me out essentially for a day.”

That same day, both Austin and San Antonio reached single-digit temperatures for the first time in more than 30 years. The next night, Lateur was rinsing dishes when the water pressure felt low. Instantly, he began filling up water bottles for his family, just in case. Neighbors informed him there was a nearby water main break and surrounding tanks had completely frozen. He and his family would end up going five days without running water.

“I’m not exaggerating when I say I took the most fantastic shower of my life last night,” Lateur said. “And as soon as my power came back on, I was never more thankful to be able to turn a light switch on. It puts things in perspective.”

President Joe Biden has since declared a major disaster for most of the state, as the Texas National Guard continues to conduct welfare checks and assist local authorities in helping those in need find a local warming station. At least 26 people have died in connection with the winter weather, CNN reported.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) – a grid operator controlling about 90% of the state’s electric load – has blamed a lack of energy supply as the cold weather shuttered power facilities. As of Monday morning, more than 15,700 people were without power across the state, according to poweroutage.us. Additionally, customers of Texas-based electricity provider Griddy who pay wholesale prices have reported astronomically high bills due to the strong demand. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that he is working with members of the legislature to find ways that the state can help reduce the burden, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, nearly 8.8 million people are still under boil water notices, which were issued after days of record low temperatures damaged the state’s water infrastructure, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told NBC News. Roughly 120,000 people still had no water service at all on Monday, Feb. 22.

Promotional products firms (Texas is one of the top states for distributors and the largest state end-market for promo sales at $3.4 billion) are still recovering from the damage and disruption of service. On Monday, Dallas-based Xact Xpressions (asi/364600) was finally back to full manufacturing capacity after being without power for most of last week. Aside from an automated reply message, the company wasn’t able to communicate with customers via phone or email. “Most of our staff was without power due to rolling blackouts,” said Shannon Wright, president of Xact Xpressions. “Some blackouts lasted 12 hours. We had two employees with burst pipes. It has been an ordeal, but we have come out the other side.”

Anthony Carpenter of The Branded Creation Powered by Proforma (asi/490015) in Houston asked another Proforma owner to ship plumbing parts overnight so he could fix one of his broken pipes because none of the home supply stores had any supplies left. “All of my promo people are doing well, though,” Carpenter noted. “A few broken pipes, but all in all, not too bad.”

After being without electricity for four days, Houston-based Spectrum Uniforms (asi/88680) reopened for a brief period on Friday with only essential staff. Many employees went close to two days without power and most are still without water. “We supply medical apparel, medical tools and PPE, so obviously this has had an impact on our clients in an already challenging market,” explained Chandani Radia, managing director at Spectrum.

Houston-based Kati Sportcap (asi/64140) has been able to reopen its office and has been playing catch up ever since, especially as UPS resumed operations on Thursday and FedEx started running again on Friday. “We just want everyone to give us a little breathing room as we try and get back to normal,” said Gary Mosley, co-owner of Kati Sportcap.

Despite the harrowing conditions over the past week, King has focused on the positives. He’s witnessed neighbors shoveling each other’s driveways, offering showers and toilet facilities, helping with broken pipes and sharing generators. He’s also been reading stories of local good Samaritans providing shelter to a stuck delivery driver, delivering water to elderly residents and other charitable acts.

“Our community was resilient,” King said. “We absorbed the hits and responded with courage, compassion and dignity. When the dust settles and [attention is focused on] those that are responsible for the problems, it will be most important to focus on those who fixed the problems.”