The entrance receives a fresh look, and a reconfigured parts and rental counter greets customers as they visit the rebuilt Cowin Tuscaloosa branch. (CEG photo)

In July 2017, Cowin Equipment Company opened the doors on its new location in the Tuscaloosa, Ala., market. The branch was thriving and truly was "hitting a its stride" when a devastating electrical fire broke out just four years after opening.

The electrical fire started in the office area and spread throughout the ductwork and destroyed the entire facility. The Cowin staff immediately put in a portable trailer on the equipment yard adjacent to the burned facility to serve as parts and sales offices and rented an available shop nearby for service work.

Staffers all pitched in to move anything that was salvageable to storage while some of the service work that needed immediate attention was completed outdoors with the technicians braving the elements.

(L-R) are Matt Sanders, product support manager; Clay Jones, rental manager; and Joel Pearce, parts manager.

After the fire, the structure was completely gutted and stripped down to a steel skeleton, and the interior was redesigned with extensions to the building incorporated into the design. In the rebuild, the entrance area was completely reconfigured to include extra room for the rental department and parts and service desk, and a bit of room for a showroom and some front-line product racking area, as well as more accessible sales offices.

To accommodate the staff, a large breakroom and a technician locker room were added. The two-story parts storage area was completely revamped and now provides extra room for racking smaller items and common use products such as filters on the lower floor, and everything else on the second-floor parts mezzanine.

For power outages, a generator system was added to serve the entire facility on a moment's notice, and a fire suppression system was installed. The service area was substantially expanded to include one more bay with a higher roofline with two-bay doors to accommodate the larger off-road trucks and excavators and is served by a 7.5-ton overhead crane. A spacious covered outdoor open air shop area was created to the rear of the facility to allow for overflow service and covered machine storage.

The rebuild gave the company the opportunity to address some needs for expanding and for adding a bit of a more "modern touch" to the Tuscaloosa facility. Plans that had already been on the drawing board were incorporated after the fire.

A few months ago, the temporary trailer was removed and the Cowin – Tuscaloosa branch staffers began the process of moving things into the new facility.

According to Cowin Product Support Manager Matt Sanders, "We have a great group of selfless guys that braved a lot of events during the rebuild of the facility. It wasn't the most ideal situation to do business. Despite all the madness, we were able to have our best product support year ever, and business was good throughout the whole rebuild and move in.

"We're in a really nice facility now and fortunate to work for a company like Cowin. Can't say enough about how grateful we are to Jamie Cowin for his commitment and investment in us and the Tuscaloosa market," added Sanders. CEG

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