Hurricane Harvey struck the Houston area with a vengeance starting on August 25th and finally leaving the area on August 29th. During the five days that Harvey hovered over Houston, it dropped in excess of 4+ feet of rain and left of path of death and destruction. Our territory was inundated with water and many of our team members, retailers and friends were impacted by the flood waters. It was a catastrophic storm that forced Faust Distributing Company to close our Houston and La Marque facilities on August 28th and 29th and our Trinity facility on August 28th.
While our warehouses were closed, it did not prevent some of our merchandising team to head out on the frontlines, when it was safe to do so, to make sure that our grocery stores were stocked. A special Thank You goes to Ron Anderson and his team down south for their merchandising efforts over the weekend. Jerry Benavides, Chris Pinones, Trevor Limmer, Joshua Hernandez, Rolando Alaniz, Xavier Castro, Scott Gaschler and Curtis Wade merchandised all weekend to make sure that our retailers and thirsty consumers could enjoy our fine products in a time of need. Additionally, a “Shout Out”to our Faust North team who worked the weekend and were only forced to close one day. Finally, Thank You to our Houston team, who fought the elements and merchandised grocery accounts when it was safe to do so. That team included, Randy Slaton, Eddie Molina, Lonnie Ladd, Alex Young, Donea Mills, John Ramirez, Steve Magana, Matt Headley, Leonard Proctor, Jerry Padilla, Kyle Swiatocha, Abraham Gonzalez and JR Cortez.
We would also like to Thank our suppliers who worked side by side with our team members, getting our retailers back in business and also offering financial assistance, as well as water and donations to the many charities that were working on our city’s recovery. It was a successful Team Effort and we are happy to report that most of the retailers that were open were back in business with 100% of their assortment just a few days after the storm ended.
Lastly, Thank You to Gilbert Gonzalez for making his way to our Houston facility over the weekend to check on the fleet and buildings, as well as our warehouse team, customer service team and many others who in numerous cases, worked double shifts to get us back in business.
The Faust Team is a Family. Your positive response during Harvey is the reason we are FAUSTRONG!!