Arctic directory March 2021: Textiles Inc., leader in flame-resistant workwear in Alaska for 25 years

Company meets challenges head on and excels in filling its customer’s needs

Petroleum News

Q. What is the official name of your company?

A. Alaska Textiles Inc.

Q. Is your firm a subsidiary or affiliate of other companies? If so, please name those firms and their relationship to your company.

A. Initially, Alaska Textiles sold mainly linens and traditional work clothing. In 1995 a Presidential memorandum was put into place to improve government regulations, which included the requirement of oil field workers to wear flame resistant apparel, and in response OSHA’s standards improvement project began. Within the following year, veteran business manager, Clif Burnette, and Alaska Textiles Inc., turned its main focus to the flame-resistant apparel industry. Alaska Textiles quickly became a dominant player in the industry, thus arising as the number one flame resistant provider to Alaska’s north slope and utility providers. Today Alaska Textiles Inc. is the leader in flash fire and electric arc protection apparel solutions, and continues to be the front- runner in bringing the latest technologies in safety apparel to the workforce throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?

A. We are the leader local FR apparel solutions. Our goal is to identify the needs and concerns of the customer and deliver the best combination of protection, comfort and value for each application. We continue to design new and customizable FR programs to meet the needs of the employees, and the industry.

Q. Where is your company located?

A. 620 West Fireweed Lane, Anchorage, AK

Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?

A. It was founded in 1996 by Dana Martens.

Q. What is your company’s primary business activity?

A. Our main focus is on flame resistant clothing.

Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently?

A. We are seeing an increase in our customer base in need of online specific ordering capabilities. We have a proprietary software called WebSam® that can track by employee, monitoring who purchased what and when. This allows companies to set limits by employee and help maintain budget controls on FR clothing.

Q. How many employees does your company have?

A. We currently have twelve employees.

Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?

A. We have the largest local stock of flame-resistant clothing in Alaska. We support this with state-of-the-art business-to-business online ordering and tracking.

Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?

A. During COVID-19 we saw an increase in demand for supplying to the health care industry. During the outbreak, many of our suppliers started to manufacturer PPE, so it was a natural move for us to begin stocking and distributing supplies to the health care sector.

Q. What is the most challenging work/contract the company has undertaken?

A. When COVID-19 first hit Alaska, we received an email from Conoco Phillips on a Sunday that they needed flame resistant masks, and by Monday we started a manufacturing line in our warehouse. We were shipping PPE by Wednesday to keep workers safe while working in the field on the North Slope.

Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work your company undertakes?

A. The process of developing our online ordering system so that it can easly be tailored to each specific company’s needs.

Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?

A. We are an oil business related company, so our challenges are the same as many Alaska business, we want oil to continue to flow through TAPS.

Q. What is the average length of time employee’s work for the company?

A. The average length our employees work with us is fifteen years. Our employees are very important to us so we do what we can to help them grow as the company grows. 2020 has been a challenge for all of us, and our crew really stepped up and helped out where needed, no matter what job needed to get done.

Q. Has your company been involved in any community projects or charity events?

A. We partnered with Carhartt this winter, donating 1,000 hats to first responders and those in need in Anchorage, Alaska; Memphis, Tennessee; and Jackson, Mississippi. We also supported Country Cares for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, an even we support every year.

Q. What is the address of your company’s Web site?

A. alaskatextiles.com