“Those were pretty scary times, not knowing what was going to happen,” she said.
The family-owned company, which was founded in 1982, cut hours back to 25 per week and had employees doing tasks other than making windows, like making hand sanitizer and masks. When the company was ultimately faced with laying off 25 to 30 percent of its workforce, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan came through, officials said.
Doerger Roberts called it a “lifeline” and no employees were laid off. Nearly 80 percent of the loan was used for payroll, including giving employees a bonus because they dropped to 25 hours per week for several weeks, she said.
The PPP was included in the bipartisan supported CARES Act, which provided economic assistance to small businesses, workers and citizens amid the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, said the PPP funds gave Vinylmax a “bridge” to get to the point where the economy started to turn around.
And because the company didn’t lay off any employees, Doerger Roberts said it was able to resume production faster than competitors, some of which shuttered permanently.
Portman said the loans, if used for payroll, could be converted into a grant, so “they were basically able to get a grant to stay in business for a while.”
The senator said he will use Vinylmax as an example of why the program, which ran out of money on Aug. 8, needs to continue.
“Part of what we’ll do, if we pass another bill, is continue PPP,” said Portman. “I think it should be even more targeted this time to ensure businesses who are using it really need it in terms of revenue loss this year compared to last year.”
“You need to have something out for these small businesses,” Portman said as many are still having tough times and have closed their doors temporarily.
“We want to make sure they don’t close their doors permanently,” he said.
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