BUSINESS SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2013
THE ITEM
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PHOTOS BY BRISTOW MARCHANT / THE ITEM
Al Willimon, right, the new owner of G&G Metal Fabrication and Fire Equipment Services, talks with finisher Bob Hingst in the bay of the company on Stamey Livestock Road recently. Willimon, a Greenville businessman, was in Sumter this week organizing the company he purchased just before Thanksgiving. Former G&G owner Tom Garrity, who founded the manufacturer nearly 30 years ago, passed away last year.
G&G’s new owner sees growth in fabrication company’s future Greenville businessman hopes to expand, partner with Safe Industries BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com One year after the death of its founder, G&G Metal Fabrication and Fire Equipment Services has been sold to new ownership. Greenville businessman Al Willimon completed the purchase of the metal fabrication company on Nov. ‘We’re pretty 20 and spent three days earlier much going to this week at its headquarters on offer the same Stamey Livestock Road, familiarizlevel of service. ing himself with the business and I want to build a getting to know the employees quality product and the local business comand complemunity. Tom Garrity, ment what they the company’s previous owner already had here and president, passed away in and help the November 2012 after running the company grow.’ company for 28 years. G&G produces fire trucks for staAl Willimon, new tions throughout South Carolina, owner of G&G Metal along with other tools and equipFabrication and Fire ment, and Garrity not only sold fire Equipment Services products, but also served as a volunteer firefighter in Wedgefield, eventually rising to the rank of captain. Now Willimon, the owner of fire equipment wholesaler Safe
A fire engine sits outside the G&G facility. The Sumter company produces fire trucks for several South Carolina departments.
Hingst looks over a truck the metal fabrication company manufactured for the SardisTimmonsville Fire Department. At its busiest, Hingst said the company can produce about 15 fire trucks a year.
Industries of Greenville, is taking over the company Garrity built into a recipient of the S.C. Silver Crescent Award for Manufacturing. Willimon said he wants to maintain the legacy Garrity passed on. “We’re going to continue doing the same work as Tom did,” he said. The company’s new owner thought G&G would be a natural partner with Safe Industries, which he will continue to run as a separate company. Safe sells equipment such as fire hoses, nozzles and portable breathing apparatuses, which can be packaged with the trucks and en-
gines manufactured in Sumter. “Most stations usually purchase that stuff with the fire truck,” Willimon said. “We can kind of feed off each other, and one business can help the other.” Willimon hopes to be able to expand the company’s current roster of 14 employees by hiring new fabricators and people to handle body paint and electrical work, along with purchasing agents and a general manager. Eventually, he’d like to add more manufacturing space at the Stamey Livestock office. As a longtime member of the fire-equipment business, Willi-
mon had been familiar with G&G and its owner for years. He served for 15 years with the Simpsonville Fire Department, where he was the captain of a heavy rescue truck, before starting Safe Industries with three employees in 2005. Although Safe isn’t a manufacturer, Willimon often ran into Garrity out on the trail. “We weren’t really competitors, but I’d seen him at trade shows, and we’d met and talked a few times,” Willimon said. After Garrity passed away last year, it soon became clear to the Upstate businessman that a new opportunity might open to move into a different side of the fire equipment business. “A fire chief called me and told me they might have to close the business,” he said, “so I called (Garrity’s son) Tim Garrity. Tim definitely wanted his father’s legacy to continue on.” For now, Willimon plans to take an active role as president and CEO of the company, commuting to Sumter at least a couple days a week to oversee operations here. Back in Greenville, Safe Industries and its 55 employees will continue operations without him for at least part of the work week. Willimon’s goal, he said, is to continue offering the same services to South Carolina’s firehouses and hopefully produce an even better product. “We’re pretty much going to offer the same level of service,” he said. “I want to build a quality product and complement what they already had here and help the company grow.” Reach Bristow Marchant at (803) 774-1272.
Volunteer firefighter Tom Garrity founded G&G Metal Fabrication in 1984 and sold fire trucks and other equipment to stations across South Carolina. New owner Al Willimon, the founder of his own fire equipment company, hopes to package his products with engines produced by the Sumter manufacturer.