Company Report: Graham Corp
Graham Corp New York firm specializes in products that reduce the heat turned up by its customers

For a company that specializes in products that remove heat, Graham Corporation's sales for the year are warming up nicely.
So far in 2007 the company has announced $13.8 million in new contracts, and according to the company's third quarter 2007 earnings report, sales for the quarter (which ended on March 31) are at $14.5 million. This represents an increase of 7.4 percent over the same time period last year.
Further, for the first nine months of the fiscal year, Graham Corporation is reporting net sales of $45 million, which represents an increase of 14.5 percent over the same time last year.
So then, what is driving these sales? Vacuum and heat transfer technology.
Graham Corporation designs and builds vacuum and heat transfer equipment for process industries throughout the world. Products include liquid ring vacuum pumps, surface condensers, and heat exchangers.
The principle markets served by the company include chemical, petrochemical, petroleum refining, and electric power generating industries. The company's products are also used for diverse applications such as metal refining, pulp and paper processing, shipbuilding, water heating, refrigeration, desalination, and food processing.
Founded in 1941 by Harold M. Graham and Frederick D. Berkeley, the company is based in Batavia, N.Y., with a production plant that includes modern engineering, manufacturing, and research and development facilities.
The company's products are marketed through a combination of direct company sales engineers and independent sales representatives located worldwide. The effectiveness of its strategy to serve a world market can be seen in its recent contracts to sell three surface condensers worth $3.5 million to two international clients.
The first is an ammonia production facility in Trinidad, which has ordered a titanium-tubed surface condenser. The order was placed by a German engineering, procurement and construction contractor and is the fifth surface condenser order of this type in 12 years, for what the company describes in a press release as Trinidad's booming petrochemical industry.
The second two condensers were ordered by a Japanese turbomachinery equipment manufacturer for installation in a petrochemical production complex in Thailand.
In a March 28 press release, Jim Lines, president and CEO of Graham, said "Our backlog continues to grow at a healthy pace with strong future prospects in our sales pipeline. We are seeing some slowing in the pace of future projects due to rising raw material costs as well as personnel resource constraints within the industry, including at the end-users, engineering, procurement and construction contractors, and other critical equipment providers."
Lines goes on to add, "To mitigate our own capacity constraints and maximize profitability, we continue to assess and accept each order based on evaluating several criteria, including the customer relationship and margin potential."
Graham also provides a number of value-added benefits to its customers that include:
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