Ada —
Ram Jack Manufacturing is picking up the pieces and moving on after a fire destroyed one of its key buildings.
The fire occurred June 4 and burned a building used for powder coating metal products Ram Jack manufactures. Damage to the building and machines used in the process is estimated at $2 million.
The company has entered into an agreement with Sundowner Trailers in Coleman to keep production of its manufactured parts going.
“The guys down in Coleman have opened their hearts and their doors to us for our powder coating and finishing,” said Ivan Matthews, Ram Jack district manager. “The fire (occurred Sunday) and by 3 p.m. Monday, the following day, we had a deal worked out with them to do this.”
The company builds products used in the creation and repair of foundations. After a part is created, it is then powder coated to make it abrasion and corrosion resistant.
The facility where the fire occurred, located at State Highway 1 and County Road 1570, employs about 75 people. Mike Pinley, Ram Jack general manager, said there were no lay-offs and most employees were back and working soon after the fire was extinguished. Matthews said the building where the products are created wasn’t harmed by the fire.
“It was strictly our finishing building that caught fire, so it didn’t hamper our manufacturing abilities at all,” he said. “By Sundowner coming through for us, we’re going to be running this week,” Matthews said Monday.
Employees who worked in the burned building will be driven to Sundowner Trailers to continue the powder coating process.
Although Ram Jack repairs residential foundations, Matthews said the company’s reach is much greater.
“We do lots of commercial work,” he said. “Most people that live around Ada don’t realize how far we reach. We’ve got dealers, installers and franchises from Puerto Rico, to South America to Canada and all across the United States.”
Ram Jack is currently working a massive project in Arizona, building foundations (called pile caps) for the largest solar plant field in the world.
Pile caps are installed in the ground so framework for solar panels can be anchored to them. The company is manufacturing 440 a day.
“We’ve got about 30,000 of them installed out there right now,” Matthews said.
The solar plant will require 70,752 pile caps total.
“It’s by far the biggest project we’ve ever done,” Pinley said.
Ram Jack recently became the first and only manufacturer to receive an International Code Council approved evaluation report for its helical piles (in ground anchor piers).
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