Page 16 - BusinessWest August 17, 2020

in the world at the moment.
“Any time there’s any trouble going on in the
world and more money is being put into the defense budget, we benefit from that,” said Kris- tin Carlson, the company’s president. “We’re get- ting new engine parts, new fuel-injection parts ... things we’ve never made before. Any time there’s unrest in our country or anywhere in the world,
Mark Borsari says being deemed ‘essential’ certainly helps, but there is
too much uncertainty with this pandemic for any company to feel secure about the future.
the rush to take up golf, the pandemic has led
to a time of challenge, uncertainty, and ques- tions about what will, and won’t, come next. And this is a difficult climate to operate in, said Bor- sari, who tried to put things in perspective for BusinessWest.
“The biggest challenge is that there is no play- book for what we’re dealing with,” he explained. “This thing has come through and almost indis- criminately picked out specific companies and industries and devastated them and left others somewhat unscathed. It depends on who their market is, where they are on the supply chain, who their vendors are, who their customers are ...
“It’s difficult to shut it down so abruptly and then wind it back up again. But overall, we’ve done very well.”
the Defense Depart- ment spends more money.”
But not all area manufacturers have been so fortunate. Indeed, while golf balls are important to many, they are not ‘essential’ in the eyes of the state’s governor, so the Calla- way plant in Chicopee was shut down as it was heading into its busiest time of the year — the start of the golf season in the Northeast and other colder climes. And shutting down a
Fortunately, the company has been helped by something that could not have been foreseen in those dark days of March — a surge in popular- ity in the game of golf resulting from the fact that it is one of the few sports people can play while also socially distancing themselves from others.
This surge now has the company running three shifts seven days a week, said Simonds, adding that Callaway is now struggling to meet global demand, especially for its lower-priced, entry-level products (more on that later).
But even for those companies that were not shut down, have not seen shrinking demand for the products they make, or been helped by
plant that size, which was running three shifts six days a week, is a complicated undertaking, said Vince Simonds, the company’s director of Global Golf Ball Operations.
“It’s difficult to shut it down so abruptly and then wind it back up again,” he said, noting that the massive plant was shut down from March 25 until May 18, when the first phase of the state’s reopening plan went into effect. “But overall, we’ve done very well.”
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16 AUGUST 17, 2020
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BusinessWest
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