Stinson Manufacturing Co., which makes scaffolding planks, decks, and ladder jacks used to form stable above-ground work platforms, has found that keeping its balance in a turbulent economy isnt easy.


The small Spokane business posted its best sales year in 2000, then weathered a two-year sales decline that mirrored a softening of the national economy. Demand for its products has rebounded some this year, though, which has Steve Boots, the companys president, feeling a bit more upbeat.


I think were hanging in there relatively well compared to where the market is, he says.


Stinson sells its products throughout the U.S. and Canada, and occasionally overseas, through a network of distributors. It occupies a 28,000-square-foot complex at 414 N. Sycamore, in the industrial area just east of Freya Street, and operates satellite warehouses in Kent, Wash., and Coldwater, Mich.


In addition to platform-related products, the company makes loading ramps, serves as a distributor for Cuprum brand ladders made in Mexico, and sells a range of ladder accessories and fall-protection equipment.


Weve expanded our lines quite a bit, Boots says.


Stinsons products are used by building, remodeling, and painting contractors, and other professionals from electricians to maintenance workers, as well as consumers. The company employs as many as 20 people during peak construction season, which is up about five people from a decade ago. Back then, the companys annual sales were about $2 million, and Bootswhile preferring not to be specificsays theyve grown by about one-third since then.


Because a big part of the companys sales are tied to the national construction trade, it has felt the sting of the U.S. economic downturn directly, he says. Although its sales have tended to follow the ups and downs of the housing market, he says, I dont think the lower interest rates have really translated into more business for us.


A quick end to the war in Iraq hopefully would trigger the beginnings of an economic resurgence, which would be good for Stinsons sales, Boots says. Longer term, though, he says hes concerned about escalating competition from manufacturers in Far East countries, China in particular.


I think were just starting to see this overseas competition coming in, but the imported products appear generally to be of good quality, and theyre putting price-point pressure on domestic manufacturers, he says.


Survival in this market is going to be a little touchy, I think, for a lot of companies. Its going to be a big challenge, looking at what comes in from overseas, Boots says. Were always looking for new products to sell, and were also looking for new products to manufacture, as a way to keep the company growing amid that rising global competition, he says.


Boots and his wife, Jan, own Stinson. About four and a half years ago, he says, they bought out the ownership interest of Jans brother, Tom Williams, who also formerly was president of TNT United Truck Lines here.


Jan Stinson and Tom Williams are the son and daughter of the late Oscar Williams, who had founded Stinson Manufacturing with Truman Stinson in 1951, a couple of years after Truman Stinson had developed a commercial scaffold plank.


That plank was made of wood and used a tapered, monocoque designa type of construction in which the center is hollow and the skin or outer shell bears most of the weight stresses. Thinner at each end than at the center, the plank looked somewhat like a cross-section of an airplane wing, anddespite some design changesstill does. To increase the planks longevity, the two men began making the tapered side panels out of aluminum, instead of lumber, after consulting with engineers at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. and a trailer company here. The aluminum made the plank strong for its relatively light weight, and its design allowed it to span long distances with minimal sagging.


Williams bought out Stinsons interest in the company in about 1954. The company expanded its product line into aluminum ladder jacks in the 1960s, loading ramps in the 1970s, and scaffold decks in the 1980s.


Ladder jacks are adjustable devices that fit onto ladders and support scaffold planks. Scaffold planks typically are suspended between two points, whereas scaffold decks become part of the scaffolding itself and provide flooring there. Boots says scaffold planks and ladder jacks basically provide a quick-setup form of scaffolding that is best suited for jobs of short duration.


Stinson offers 35 models of scaffold planks, ranging in size from 12 to 24 inches wide and 8 to 32 feet long and in price from less than $200 to more than $2,000. The companys scaffold decks, all 19 inches wide with hooks on each end for scaffold mounting, come in 7-, 8-, and 9-foot lengths and range in price from about $115 to $165. The all-aluminum ladder jacks are made in just two sizes and are priced at $120 and $138, respectively. Its standard ramps range in size mostly from 10 to 14 feet long and in price from $290 to $525. The company, however, also makes custom ramps that span a wider range of sizes.


Boots says one of the companys biggest struggles in recent years has been finding the raw materials for the products it makes. Were forced to go out of the U.S. for a lot of our raw materials now, he says.


It used to buy aluminum locally from Kaiser, for example, but now has to shop around with more distant suppliers that are willing to meet its comparatively low-volume needs, he says. Likewise, he says, Stinson no longer is able to find a domesticor even a North Americansource for the high-strength plywood decking it needs, and most recently has found Russian and Latvian suppliers to be its best sources for such wood.


Ladder sales now account for about one-third of Stinsons overall revenue, although the U.S. ladder-making industry has struggled and gone through considerable consolidation in recent years, Boots says. The Mexican-made Cuprum ladder line that the company carries includes aluminum, wood, and Fiberglas ladders of all types and lengths, rated for household, commercial, heavy-duty industrial, and extra heavy-duty industrial use.