Ed Purdy’s crew at Opportunity Resources Inc. are fast becoming experts at bending, cutting and drilling metal pipes. And those are just a few of the duties now being performed by Opportunity in a new business partnership the nonprofit has formed with a local entrepreneur.
Opportunity, which provides support and job experience for people with disabilities, is working with Jeff Howard to manufacture a line of unique greenhouses.
Howard founded Convertible Greenhouse Co. after inventing a hinge and pulley system that allows portions of a greenhouse’s paneling to easily open and close. It’s the Opportunity crew’s job to get all the parts and pieces of each greenhouse into kits for shipment to customers.
An entire section of Opportunity’s warehouse on Russell Street has been converted into a greenhouse manufacturing area, where production manager Purdy oversees the work. He stands close by as Joe Isaacs slices piece after piece of pipe on a wet saw. Next, Adam Plekkenk places a pipe into a two-headed drill and works to put perfectly placed holes into each piece.
For her part, Andrea Heist fits pipes into a machine to bend the pipe to fit into each structure’s framework. She has enjoyed the new work so far.
“It’s a really new experience for me. My boss and my parents want me to try new stuff,” Heist said.
Howard grew up helping his grandparents garden and spent his professional career in construction. He worked for years on the Convertible designs. Howard has two patents on the designs, and the company offers several models and sizes of greenhouses. Two styles of Convertible vinyl mini-garages are also available.
“Convertible is the whole thing,” Howard said. “With a typical greenhouse, so much space is wasted and they can overheat.”
The outside access provided in the Convertible pulley and hinge design not only opens up the space, it adds a climate-control function that can extend almost any growing season. People on the rainy West Coast can protect plants from too much moisture, while people in Missoula can protect finicky tomato plants from cold nights, Howard said. The different models can be placed in gardens, against structures or on raised garden beds.
“It gives local growers a little more time and a lot more control,” said Tim Furey, Opportunity Resources director of development. “I look at it as a garden within my garden.”
Convertible greenhouses are also very easy to assemble and transport, Furey said.
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As he worked to establish the business, Howard reached out to Opportunity, which works with dozens of businesses around the area, because he knew it was in need of work options for clients.
“The loss of Smurfit-Stone (Container Corp.’s mill) was a huge hit for us. (Howard) saw us as a work force,” said Jack Chambers, Opportunity’s chief executive officer.
Convertible’s partnership with Opportunity was a good fit because the greenhouse manufacturing work provides a wide variety of jobs at different levels, Chambers said.
The partnership is set up so Opportunity owns the manufacturing equipment and sells the kits to Howard, who is a partner with Opportunity in the marketing portion of the business. Four subcontracting companies also help in the manufacturing process, doing jobs like welding.
If the company takes off, the work could employ up to 50 clients in different capacities, Chambers said.
Howard designed all the equipment used to prepare the metal pipes that make up the greenhouse framework. Purdy’s crew also cuts the greenhouse film used to cover the structures. They are building inventory now and marketing Convertible’s greenhouses across the country.
Reporter Jenna Cederberg can be reached at 523-5241 or at jenna.cederberg@missoulian.com.
