With a pandemic, wildfires,
and international tension,
this company saw a 25% jump in demand in 2020.
Its specialty?
Hazmat suits, even for kids.
Laura Kappler-Roberts: Whenever there's unrest
throughout the world, we do see an increase in demand.
Narrator: Kappler sells $3,000 fully encapsulated suits.
And the company went from
taking 737,000 orders in 2019
to over a million by early November 2020.
Dennis Sanders: The coverage that the coronavirus
has received has elevated the demand
for protective clothing in general.
Narrator: Despite an uptick in orders,
Kappler has faced staffing issues, order backlogs,
and a COVID-19 outbreak of its own.
Sanders: We've been in a situation for well over a year
with no inventory whatsoever.
I mean, all of our stock has been wiped out.
Our products being in such high demand
that we've not been able to keep up with it.
Narrator: We visited the Kappler manufacturing plant
in Guntersville, Alabama,
back in January to see how it's bringing
protective fashion to life.
Kappler began making protective garments back in 1976.
The company's suits range from level D,
which protects against dirt and grease,
to level A, a fully encapsulated suit
that protects against hazardous materials
such as liquids and vapors.
All of the suits from D to A protect against COVID-19,
although Dennis says the level A ones are...
Sanders: Way overkill
for trying to protect from the coronavirus.
Narrator: Yet, sales were up for Kappler suits
across the board.
Sanders: It's not surprising because
the concern with hazardous materials
has been elevated drastically with the exposure to COVID.
Narrator: Keeping out all that bad stuff
starts with the fabric.
Sanders: Our fabric has multiple layers.
We outsource the production of that,
but we have the recipes to put all those layers together.
Kappler-Roberts: We are developing the fabrics,
engineering in the protective properties into those fabrics.
Sanders: It comes back to us in roll-goods form.
We then put patterns over the top of those layers
and we cut those out.
Narrator: That cut fabric heads to one
of 95 sewers and sealers on the manufacturing floor.
Sanders: They have to first sew it together.
It's then put through a unique process
we call heat sealing, where they're taking tape
that has those comparable layers of barrier properties,
and that seam tape is heat sealed
over the outside of the seam on that garment.
We then turn it inside out and we seal the inside.
Narrator: Next, workers attach all the hardware,
thread, buttons, and fabric fasteners.
And finally it heads to quality control.
Sanders: We use a unique device,
a pressure test kit that monitors
to see if there's any pressure decay,
if there's any pinholes, leaks, anything like that,
that might be coming from the garment.
Narrator: Compared to a white gown
that may take minutes to make,
it could take hours to put together one level A
vapor-protective hazmat suit.
The company says its first real uptick in demand
came in 2014 with the outbreak of Ebola.
Kappler-Roberts: We took more orders in two days
for one particular product than we had taken in two years.
And it completely overwhelmed, obviously, our manufacturing.
Narrator: Normally,
Kappler sells its suits
to the military, law enforcement,
and fire departments.
But this year, with an
increased need for PPE...
Sanders: The medical side of our business
is up close to 70% from previous years.
Narrator: Driven by the fear of the coronavirus,
the demand for the general public has also taken off.
Sanders: The issue, though, is the heightened concern
that the next particular virus might be more deadly.
Narrator: Kappler has partnered with MIRA Safety
to manufacture suits for the general public.
The newest product in the partnership?
Child-sized hazmat suits.
Sanders: The children's side of that has really elevated
because there's been more and more concern.
Narrator: As customer interest grew,
the company introduced two sizes for kids.
Kappler-Roberts: When they're making the smaller suits,
the looks that the operators give the suit,
and to imagine a situation in which
a child would have to wear that.
Narrator: And the sector for children's suits
has grown over 500% this year.
Sanders: That's every parent's worst nightmare,
is they've got something for themselves
but nothing to protect their children.
Narrator: But with the influx of orders
and new product lines,
the company hasn't been able
to manufacture suits fast enough.
Even with workers putting in overtime,
staffing was an issue.
Sanders: February, March time frame,
we actually had a couple of plant shutdowns
because we had somebody with the virus.
Narrator: It's caused a 50% turnover rate
among employees of the plant.
Kappler-Roberts: Since January, we have hired
around 65 production operators,
but on the same hand we've had around 50 leave us.
Sanders: The training curve to do one of those $3,000 suits
is probably six months.
And unfortunately that's led to some cancellations, too.
We've had probably 15, 20% of orders
that were canceled because of,
you know, the longer lead time.
Narrator: Had it been able to meet demand this year,
Dennis estimates the company could have
doubled its sales from 2019.
To help scale up to meet capacity in the future,
Kappler's engineers are looking
to semi and full automation.
Kappler-Roberts: We have got to increase our capacity
to really bolster our ability
to produce at high volumes when needed
but to also be able to scale back when needed
and not incur a lot of overhead.
Narrator: Because Kappler doesn't
expect demand to decrease anytime soon.
Sanders: Just based on the fact that
the cold weather seems to be causing
a tremendous elevation in the virus,
I would expect that that's gonna increase the demand.
Kappler-Roberts: Unfortunately, our increase in demand
can be tied to something tragic.
Hurts your heart a little bit,
but you hope you are providing something
that would protect someone in such a situation.