After New York City was devastated by Hurricane Sandy in late 2012, hundreds of businesses across the city struggled to stay in operation. One of the businesses affected was Architectural Grille, a family-owned business located in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. A manufacturer of grilles, the company’s main facility was devastatingly flooded by the storm, causing nearly $5 million in damages and economic losses.
Three years later, the company has bounced back to almost full capacity. After bringing back more than 65% of the original staff and replacing all of their machinery, the company has recuperated a big portion of its market share and is looking to expand into new markets.
With support from the NYC Department of Small Business Services’ Customized Training program, Architectural Grille trained 22 employees on JobBoss, AutoCad, Lean Mastery, and other machine-specific software to increase productivity, sales, and customer retention between 4% - 10%.
Over the course of 14 months, trainees took classes at Pace University and the NYC College of Technology, in addition to training provided by JobBoss, Atlantic Welding Company, and other machine vendors. “It helped me understand how to properly inventory supplies,” said a participant of the JobBoss training. The Customized Training program requires that businesses increase the wages of employees post-training; for Architectural Grille the average wage increase was 13.3%, higher than the rate initially projected.
Learn more about the Customized Training program »
Applications are accepted year round. The next application deadline is Friday, November 6, 2015.