C.W.Williams News

Earlier this year representatives from C.W. Williams attended national Dealer Meetings with Spartan Chassis in Las Vegas and Rosenbauer in Sioux Falls, SD. Our customer’s confidence in us and those we represent resulted in awards from both companies.

At the left, Dennis Chamberlayne- Spartan Regional Sales Manager presents our President, Jim Edwards with Spartan’s Diamond Dealer Award. This is the highest level award available. Also pictured are Dean Allred, VP Sales & Marketing, Sales Representatives Joel Callihan, Bennie Mobley and Ron Cheves, as well as Jeff Turner, Apparatus Sales Engineer.

Rosenbauer recognized their top ten Dealers and C.W. Williams placed third in just our second full year of representation. C.W. Williams President Jim Edwards is shown eighth from the left on the back row.

From: CWW

To: Future Fire Apparatus Buyers

Our dealership wanted to pass along information that will have a fairly significant impact on the cost of fire fighting and emergency vehicles in the immediate future.

Fire fighting and emergency vehicles are manufactured according to standards established in Pamphlet 1901 of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). This standard is updated every five (5) years with the next revision taking effect for vehicles purchased on or after January 1st, 2009. The upcoming standard contains a number of new requirements which will increase the cost of apparatus purchased on or after this date by approximately $12-16,000, depending on the style and type of unit purchased.

In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is mandating a new emissions standard that will significantly impact the cost of diesel engines manufactured on or after January 1st 2010. We are being told by our chassis suppliers that this requirement will likely increase the cost of an engine and accessory equipment by an additional $12-16,000. If we use the last emission standards change as a guide, we can expect 2009 diesel engine production capacity to be completely sold out well before the end of 2009. To be safe we are recommending purchases be made no later than May 2009 to avoid the 2010 emission standard increases.

When you couple the above cost impacts with the 3-4% inflationary increases we are seeing from our various suppliers on an annual basis, there is every reason to suspect that the cost of fire apparatus could rise dramatically in the next couple of years.

While it is not our intent to be the bearer of bad news, we nonetheless want to notify you of these pending changes, as they are quite significant. Many of our customers have indicated an intention to expedite their purchasing cycles in 2008 to avoid these added costs. Should you have similar plans, we encourage you to proceed in a timely manner in order to take advantage of today’s advantageous cost structure.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

C.W. Williams & Co. has moved its Virginia office from Martinsville to Richmond. The new address is:

3613 Saunders Ave.
Richmond, VA 23227

Phone - (804) 355-6111
Fax - (804) 355-6114

With this move the Company also announces new services available to our customers. This office will act as a hub for SCBA testing, repair and warranty. Other equipment services such as hose repair and hydrostatic testing will also be available from this site.

Both on-site and mobile services are available.

Along with this announcement the Company is proud to announce the addition of two new employees in Virginia that will greatly improve our sales and service offering in Virginia.. Ahmad Galestan has joined the Company as Service Manager and will run the Richmond office. Ahmad comes to us after a long-time affiliation with Guardian Fire & Safety, previously of Richmond, Va. He is a seasoned and highly respected SCBA Technician. Rocky Barbee has joined the Company as a Field Sales Representative and will concentrate his efforts on the Southside, Tidewater and Eastern Shore areas of Virginia. The addition of Mr. Barbee will allow our central Virginia Sales Representative Phil Bryan, to push north into counties previously uncovered. Mike White, our Representative in southwest Virginia will continue with his present assignments.

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FDIC 2008 set all-time attendance records this year. Hackney had four vehicles on display. The two inside space vehicles were a Heavy Rescue and a Command and Control Vehicle. Sitting on the Maryland Street sidewalk was a Heavy Light Rescue and the ATTV (all-terrain tracked vehicle).

“We were very pleased with the quality of attendees this year,” says Ed Smith, Director of Sales and Marketing. “The industry has been somewhat concerned about governmental budget cuts over the past several months. Although this is still a concern for the fire apparatus industry in general, the interest we garnered during the FDIC show was very encouraging.”

Overall attendance was reported at over 28,500, blowing away previous year records. Many experts believe the primary reason for the continued success of the FDIC is that it has become recognized as the venue where new products are debuted and where you will see products not generally available at most of the other fire service venues, not to mention the high caliber of educational opportunities made available to all levels of fire department related services.

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