154 | Business World Magazine |
March 2014
mers’ vice president and general manager for
the last three years. “We had quite a number
of our vendors come in and do training and
then we purchased equipment.”
The most significant upgrade came in the
form of a new hose-crimping apparatus that
will allow the company toworkwithhoses up
to 10 inches in diameter – which was viewed
as a necessity to serve oil and gas companies.
Previously, the largest diameter hose Sum-
mers could work with was six inches.
The machine was up and running last
spring and the emphasis has paid off with
36-percent growth to the company’s annual
energy bottom line. More progress is antici-
pated as Ohio-based exploration interests
continue to develop and build infrastructure
to move the oil and gas to shipping ports or
trucking locations and depots.
“It doesn’t constitute our largest business
segment,” Tiernay says, “but it is our fastest
growing.”
In spite of the recent investments in en-
ergy, however, Summers remains a widely di-
versified company that doesn’t lean too heav-
ily on one industry, a strategy which keeps
it from suffering too gravely when particular
interests sustain an economic downturn – as
happened during the recent recession.
Another growth area Summers is focused
