Tire recycling firm GreenMan Technologies Inc. expects to have its waste wire processing operations at its Jackson facility back on-line by November, about eight months after the March 31 fire that put them out of commission.
Damaged equipment from the Jackson plant was removed by Aug. 12, and now the company awaits final quotes on repair or replacement of that machinery.
``We moved the equipment out after the insurance company blessed it,'' said Chuck Coppa, GreenMan chief financial officer. Mr. Coppa said at press time he wasn't sure whether fire investigators have made their final report on the Jackson fire.
The fire broke out in the waste wire processing section and quickly spread outside, the company said at the time. No one was injured, and the plant's tire shredding operations resumed within 24 hours.
It was an internal decision within GreenMan not to restart waste wire operations at Jackson before now, according to Mr. Coppa.
``We looked at moving our Wisconsin waste wire machinery to Georgia, but in the end we installed it in Minnesota in July,'' he said.
When waste wire operations at Jackson resume, GreenMan will have three waste wire processing facilities. Besides the one opened in July in Savage, Minn., the company also has had a waste wire facility in Des Moines, Iowa, since October 2002.
Based in Lynnfield, Mass., GreenMan Technologies supplies whole and shredded tires to customers across the U.S.
In its fiscal third quarter ended June 30, the company posted a net loss of $971,000 on sales of $7.2 million.
Decreased revenues resulting from the Georgia fire, along with the completion of several large tire pile cleanups and various extraordinary costs, were to blame for the loss, the company said.