Niles manufacturer provides gear to virus frontline

Published 8:57 am Wednesday, April 29, 2020

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NILES — The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many companies and industries slowing down or taking a pause on work. Niles company, Innovative Products Unlimited at 2120 Industrial Dr., has experienced the opposite.

The company has experienced an influx of demand in its products meant for hospitals and medical environments.

Isolation products manufactured by the company brought in peak sales for March and April. The PVC products, coded with yellow accents to denote “isolation” wards of medical facilities, have been the star sellers at the company. The company is a leader in the PVC healthcare equipment industry.

Low beds with wheels, isolation stations to store supplies in, and now foldable privacy screen sales have historically not been the big sellers for Innovative Products Unlimited. The company’s main product sales in the past have been shower chairs, like those used in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.

The newest trend in its production has been the temporary privacy screens, according to Casey Becker, director of sales and marketing at Innovative Products Unlimited.

“Right at the beginning of April, we shipped hundreds of them to New York, Baltimore and a lot of the east coast,” Becker said. “There was a lot of early [orders] on the west coast, but now it is pretty much all east coast.”

The company’s sales have been largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for temporary gear in isolation wards of hospitals.

“We have flowed with the national peak, as you would see it,” Becker said of COVID-19 infection rates. “Orders really started to compile right around April 3 to 14, which is when we saw our peak. Since then, it has tapered off a little bit.”

The company’s sales hit a new record in March, having an increase of 20 percent in orders. April has been a busier month for Innovative Products Unlimited, with expectations to see a final increase between 35 and 40 percent.

“It’s bigger than our biggest month in history,” Becker said.

With sales still well above normal for April, they are beginning to taper down a bit, Becker said that the company is still operating at a much busier level than usual.

“We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Becker said.

The company has hired on a handful of new employees. It has had employees working longer hours and weekends, at their discretion to keep up with the orders.

“We are leaving it optional for our employees, so they don’t get burned out,” Becker said.