EnerSys, city work together for both sides' sake

By ERIC W. NORRIS

Hays Daily News

They make batteries the average consumer will never see, batteries the size of large touring suitcases that produce back-up energy for computer systems to nuclear power plants.

And though business has slipped dramatically since Sept. 11, 2001, EnerSys is slowly and steadily climbing out of the red.

Before the successful attack on one of the pillars of the free world economy, EnerSys was thriving, producing energy systems for the exploding telecommunications industry that thrived in the late 1990s and into 2000.

So much so that the plant invested millions of dollars in capital improvements, reaching an agreement with the Hays City Commission concerning property tax abatements on the equipment purchased.

Part of that agreement was the manufacturer maintaining an average of 300 employees over a 10-year period.

In exchange, city officials agreed to give EnerSys the authority to issue up to $35 million in industrial revenue bonds, which the company used to make over $22 million worth of improvements property tax free.

However, after Sept. 11, 2001, the bottom dropped out of the telecommunication industry and handcuffed the manufacturer in an agreement that simply was not economically possible.

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Dennis Brumbaugh, EnerSys plant manager, went before the commissioners for at least the second time last year, and said 300 employees would equal “financial suicide” for the plant.

The commission agreed to lift the 300 watermark, allowing the company to still receive the tax abatement and function at a number of employees the business could handle.

What Brumbaugh told the commission in November is still true in March.

“We are currently experiencing a positive trend in the market,” Brumbaugh said to commissioners. “But the economic rise is not nearly at the same rate as to what we fell.”

In March in his office, Brumbaugh pulled out a pen saying, “We went down like this,” and drew a jagged line dropping at a steady and sharp 45-degree angle.

“And though we are climbing, it is more like this,” and he drew a line running at a much greater rate than it is rising.

“It's a climb and it has been steady,” Brumbaugh said. “Steady but very, very modest.”

Part of what has helped the manufacturer from going under was the capital improvements investment.

“In 2000, we went through a sharp period of growth that we decided to expand from smaller batteries, like cell phone batteries, to large commercial reserve batteries,” Brumbaugh said.

The move to improve probably helped prevent total collapse.

Currently the plant has 187 employees on staff and is looking to fill 10 more positions sometime in the near future.

“Our goal is 200 people on staff,” Brumbaugh said. “Of course the market fluctuates but we want to have around 200 soon.”

As the plant manager talks about filling position, another position came open.

Brumbaugh is transferring to another plant with EnerSys in Richmond, Ky., after three years in Hays.

Reporter Eric Norris can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 143, or by e-mail at

enorris@dailynews.net.