Expansion loan gives metalworker room to craft the 'ultimate' job.

Mark Andol will lead a 15-truck convoy this spring from Attica, N.Y., to St. Louis, Mo., to deliver a 350,000-pound metal sculpture of 53 animals to the St. Louis Zoo.

It's the project of a lifetime for Andol, owner of General Welding & Fabricating Inc. of Elma, N.Y., who has spent his career building custom metal parts and trailers and selling snowplows and truck equipment. Though the project isn't the largest dollar-wise, it is the kind of project that keeps Andol excited after nearly 20 years in the industry.

"It's all been bent and formed by hand with either heat or through a press," he says. "At one point, we didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel but everybody pulled together as a team. That's what's made General Welding from the beginning."

The company has spent the past year working on the project, which will stand 34 feet tall and 120 feet wide. The Animals Always sculpture was designed by Rochester artist Albert Paley for a New York City zoo. After a benefactor reneged, philanthropists in St. Louis bought the designs for $1 million to front a new plaza for the St. Louis Zoo.

The "ultimate fabrication job," it's the kind of project Andol says he could only dream about back in the early 1990s, when he ran an eight-man shop from a 5,000-square-foot rented space. He started out selling welding services in 1989 from his father's garage. After awhile, he began selling snowplows and by 1993, he knew he needed more space.

After identifying a tract of land and convincing its owners to hold the mortgage for him, Andol began getting pricing from builders for a 14,000-square-foot facility and met with the local economic development organization, the Erie County Industrial Development Agency. But then the price came up higher than anticipated.

M&T Bank ultimately approved a 25-year, $450,000 loan at 9.3 percent interest, with an 80 percent guarantee from the SBA. The SBA-backed 7(a) loan in turn helped Andol acquire a seven-year, $100,000 loan for equipment through the ECIDA. The 7(a) is the SBA's primary lending program.

"I had no money to put down, so the SBA had to do it," Andol says. "That's what got the whole project going. It was such a high-risk thing and the SBA came through for me. That made it all happen."

John Skrzypczyk, a vice president at M&T Bank and manager at Andol's branch, called Andol a talented guy with a good skill set and a lot of ambition.

"We basically took a leap of faith which would only happen as a result of the SBA becoming involved," he says. "This is a classic case of a gentleman with a lot of ambition and a lot of skill, as well as work ethic but very little resources financially. Because of the SBA, he was able to pursue this and grow it into a very viable business."

Frank Sciortino, director of the SBA's Buffalo District Office, says the loan to General Welding was a perfect example of what the SBA was set up to do when it was created in 1953.

"We were there to help them and if we weren't there, this business probably would never have gotten started," he says. "We realize that's what we're here for--to help small businesses start and those that are in business, to help them grow."

"Without them, I wouldn't be here in this building," Andol says. "I'd be much smaller, probably 10 to 15 guys. I wouldn't have created the livelihoods I have."

Today, General Welding employs 45 and operates four locations, offering custom trailers, fabricated steel products and truck equipment, engineering and retail sales of truck accessories. As the exclusive Western New York distributor of The Boss Snowplows, Andol's business is third in volume out of 150 dealers nationwide. In 2003, he opened a second retail/ wholesale outlet in Rochester. This year, the company hopes to sell more than 600 plows--an attempt to beat last year's record of 550.

But the years have not been without their challenges. In 1994, steel prices began a steep ascent, nearly tripling in a year and forcing Andol to tighten costs and fine-tune every aspect of the business to remain competitive. He reduced employment from 56 to 40, asking everyone on staff to make sacrifices.

Andol offered extra overtime, and worked with the front office staff to control insurance costs.

"We had to make some major changes or close the doors. Everyone had to pull their weight or we couldn't keep them," he says.

Andol expects that belt-tightening to pay off. Revenue for 2006 is expected to hit $5.5 million to $6 million, up from $5 million last year.

Next up: Expanding the main site and growing business to other parts of the country, including government contracts. General Welding is continuing a project to supply war-game simulator trailers for the U.S. Air Force through a contract with Northrup Grumman Corp.'s Amherst Systems. Andol also hopes to attract more business through an expanded Web site.

"You dream it, well build it," Andol says. "We're hoping to get that going out of state more, and go across the country."

GENERAL WELDING & FABRICATING INC.

991 Maple Road, Elma, NY 14059

[phone]

www.gwfab.com

Founded: 1989

Employees: 45

2005 revenue: $5 million