Johnson Outdoors has been awarded $500,000 by New York's Empire State Flood Recovery Grant Program, established to provide supplemental compensation for businesses impacted by catastrophic flooding in that state last year. The grant will be made in two payments: half upon approval of the application and half upon completion of flood damage remediation efforts.
Binghamton, New York, is home to the Johnson Outdoors Outdoor Equipment Group division which makes and markets consumer, commercial and military tents and camping equipment under the Eureka! and Silva brand names. On June 29, 2006 the Company's manufacturing and administrative facilities located in Binghamton were temporarily shut down due to flooding caused by heavy rains in the Northeast. Production resumed at the facility in August and administrative offices, which had operated out of a temporary location after the flooding, reopened at the facility in January 2007.
Funding for the New York state flood grant program was made available by $12 million in state appropriations and reappropriations to the Empire State Development Corporation. Businesses and organizations located across 20 designated counties in New York state were eligible to receive assistance under the flood grant program. Grant funds were ear-marked expressly for costs associated with the clean-up, repair, mitigation or replacement of property, equipment and inventory lost or damaged due to floods the week of June 26, 2006. Flood grant funds were not applicable to flood-related business interruption losses. In its flood grant application last fall, the Company estimated eligible grant expenditures in Binghamton of $7.6 million related to the flood, of which all but $1.2 million was covered by the Company's insurance.
“On behalf of everyone at Johnson Outdoors, I want to thank the state of New York for taking prompt action to help spur the economic recovery of a region devastated by last year's flooding,” said Helen Johnson-Leipold, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We sincerely appreciate the support of Senator Tom Libous and other officials throughout Broome County as we continue working hard to recover and rebuild our business.”
