It Takes a Team

The concept is simple, but putting it into motion is anything but that.

“We do things that make working in an industrial environment safer, more efficient and effective,” says Elizabeth Finn, owner of H2O Deliveries and Eli Harp Group.

The idea behind both family-owned companies was brought forth by Elizabeth and her husband, Jason. Headquartered in Grabill, H2O Deliveries was started five years ago and Eli Harp Group, three years ago, serving the Fort Wayne area.

“H2O Deliveries was developed with the need for a water and ice delivery service to the manufacturing segment,” says Finn. “Factories never really had dispensers for their employees. We deliver the water to the dispensers. It’s a unique service because we’re in the factories doing this — we don’t just drop off the water at an entranceway.”

Katie Slick, general manager of both companies, says in any given week her team delivers roughly 400 to 600, 5-gallon water jugs to factories and mills in northeast Indiana. They also remove the empty jugs, clean them and send them to a bottler in southern Indiana.

“It really does take a team,” says Slick. “There’s the delivery side, the bottle washing side and the pickup side. We also do a fair amount of business with bottled water, which we deliver by the pallet. In addition, we make and bag our own ice for these facilities. We have a freezer trailer for delivery and are taking around 2,000 bags of ice every week to manufacturing and construction sites in the area.”

One of those is the ongoing construction site of the new Amazon facility off of U.S. 30 in northern Allen County.

“There are about 25 different companies from all over the country with job-site trailers set up there right now and we deliver ice and water to every one of them. It’s something the crews need and they rely on us to make sure it’s easily and conveniently accessible.”

H2O Deliveries also helps companies observe special occasions by adding a logo or text to the 16-ounce bottled-water label.

“We can put creative, custom labels and logos on the water bottles we deliver,” says Slick. “Sometimes it’s a safety message for the employees, such as ‘Stay hydrated – Be safe.’ Another example is a company that’s celebrating 10,000 hours worked with no lost-time accidents. That’s something to be recognized and what better way to do that than to put it on a water bottle that all employees will see, as well as vendors and customers. That’s really popular right now.”

Eli Harp Group caters to the same industry, but with other services including dry ice blasting, power washing, industrial painting, maintenance and recycling.

One of Eli Harp Group’s newer services is custom-made pallets. 

“We work with two Amish families who build heavy-duty pallets according to the customer’s needs,” says Slick. “We’re already providing them for a couple of steel mills and are seeing a lot of growth in this part of our business.”

With the industrial painting services offered, Finn points out that it takes special people on their team to work in manufacturing environments.

“It’s loud and very busy in places like steel mills, but our team has developed a comfort level working in those kinds of spaces, which allows us to work effectively, staying focused on what needs to be done while staying safe. With the industrial painting we offer, we’re doing a lot of taping floor paths and safety routes out of a facility. We use a luminous tape, so if the power goes out in a facility, the middle section of the tape glows in the dark for up to 12 hours.”

Sonya Day, operations manager, oversees the services of both companies. One of these services is contact vacuuming that removes solids, dirt and dust from industrial surfaces at any elevation. Day says the vacuuming works well on floors, walls, ceilings, rafters, beams, joists and duct work. The team uses two Hurricane 300 vacuums that contain high-efficiency particulate air filters that eliminate possible sparks and trap small particles that conventional vacuums cannot.

The list of services offered also includes bramble and cattail control at industrial complexes and large facilities, as well as welding and fabrication both on-site and off-site and on an emergency basis if needed.

“It seems like every week we end up offering more services to the customers we serve,” emphasizes both Slick and Day. “Our owner is always thinking of different ways we can help people working in industrial environments. We have the equipment needed to get those jobs done, but more importantly, we have the right people doing those jobs. Our customers are busy and they don’t have time to stop doing their work while we do ours, so we work around them without causing workplace disruption. Both H2O Deliveries and Eli Harp Group are constantly growing and evolving to keep up with the ever-changing needs of our customers.” 

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