HP: Please tell us how your company has evolved.
Michael F. Ciferri Jr., Vice President/Product Manager: Donovan Enterprises was established by my father and grandfather in Palm City, FL, in 1977. My father began buying and selling truck tarps as Florida began enforcing laws requiring open-top trucks and trailers to cover the loads they were hauling to prevent debris from escaping and littering the roadway, which can be dangerous to motorists and their vehicles. We began manufacturing the tarps within the next few years and developed a system to deploy the tarps without requiring the operator to climb all over the truck.

Today Donovan employs just fewer than 100 people. We have three locations in the United States (Stuart, FL; Lexington, MI; and Las Vegas, NV) and a location in Kent, England.

HP: What hurricane protection products did you handle initially? What products do you handle today?
Ciferri: After we received a pounding in the 2004 and 2005 seasons we began to experiment with easier ways to protect openings during hurricanes. We developed a combination of two fabrics that we could not damage in our crude in-house testing setup so we decided to take a chance and see if we could develop it into a "tarp system" for buildings.

After all, we had been making tarp systems for trucks for years and it seemed to be a good fit for our expertise. We may be new to the hurricane industry, but we are not new to tarps or tarp deployment systems.

HP: What one product or line stands out above the rest?
Ciferri: DAHP (Donovan Advanced Hurricane Protection) is currently focusing all of its attention on our fully automatic and manual hurricane deployment systems. These systems and screens are designed and rated to cover large openings such as porches and lanais, walkways and entranceways—up to 14-foot spans, 50 feet in length and up to 135 psf design pressure.

The design was focused on high-rise condominium complexes that currently have very few options as far as hurricane protection for porches. If they will protect a 40th floor balcony, they can easily protect a porch on a single-family home or the walkway at your local strip mall.

HP: Who are your customers? What parts of the country do you service?
Ciferri: DAHP, just like Donovan Enterprises, is a dealer-oriented company. We manufacture the systems and screens and market the product features to hurricane protection companies, installation companies and builders and contractors who are in need of protection related products. We also assist our dealers in selling and installing the systems.

HP: Is your business computerized? Do you have a company Web site, and how is it used to communicate with customers?
Ciferri: Donovan and DAHP both have Web sites. The Donovan Enterprises site, www.donovan-ent.com, has a link to DAHP’s site, www.stopastorm.com.

We are computer friendly. Our IT department manages our internal computer systems and Web site. Our engineering department uses computer aided design software to design, build and model our products. Our advertising department, which designs our literature and software, edits our Web site and lays out our advertisements. Our in-house accountings and operations personnel use a high-end software package to manage our inventory, the chart of accounts, our budgets and P & L statements.

HP: How many salespeople do you employ?
Ciferri: Donovan Enterprises uses a network of manufacturer reps that covers all 50 states. Currently there are 32 of these reps located across the country.

DAHP will use a dealer network modeled after Donovan’s, and DAHP will focus on educating and training dealers who will in turn go out and sell and install our hurricane protection systems. We are all salespeople.

HP: What best describes your niche in the marketplace?
Ciferri: Our market niche is in covering porches, balconies and lanais on high-rise condos because we can cover a 14-foot tall span 50 feet in length with a design pressure of 135 psf by using a single screen that can operate side-to-side and travel around corners. No product on the market can do all of these things.

HP: What are some of the key factors involved in your growth and success?
Ciferri: What makes us what we are today is our strong desire to succeed, our ability to keep our word and stand behind our product, and the financial situation of this third-generation company. This has allowed us to invest the hundreds of thousands of dollars required to develop, test and qualify this new hurricane deployment system. We take what we know and find new products and markets to use our knowledge, experience and equipment. That is how we have developed this system and it is how we will successfully grow DAHP into a major supplier to the hurricane protection industry.

HP: What are your strengths in the marketplace?
Ciferri: Our strengths come from two areas. 1) Our product design offers many features and benefits that are not available in any one product on the market (covers large openings, allows visibility through the product when it is deployed, ease of deployment, flexible installation, impact does not destroy product, extremely high pressure rating, stops wind, rain and debris, can travel around corners, push-button operation or manual). 2) Our organization is incredibly strong. We are in different industries and do business in multiple countries. We have in-house engineering, drafting, advertising, manufacturing and accountings capabilities. And we have a large investment in people, equipment, machinery and facilities. We are in business for the long haul.

HP: How has your segment of the industry changed since you first began?
Ciferri: When DAHP first began there was a huge demand for hurricane protection as the United States had back-to-back active seasons of hurricanes impacting Florida; New Orleans, LA; and Mississippi. Currently that demand has tapered off since we have not had a direct hit in the last few years.

The good news for DAHP is that this new protection system will do things that no shutter, system or screen has done before with ease and efficiency. Our system can be incorporated into the design of the building and be virtually invisible until you pull it or hit the button that will deploy it. You can see through the screen, it can be deployed in windy conditions, it will move side-to-side or up-and-down and has power in both directions (gravity not involved). Once our screen is impacted by a 2 x 4 at 35 mph, there is not even a scratch on it.

HP: Where do you see yourself and your company five years from now? Are there additional areas within the industry that you would like to get involved in?
Ciferri: Five years from now DAHP will be a national and international distributor for high-end hurricane protection systems. We will be working with and for architects, contractors, builders and hurricane protection companies whose goal is to provide high-quality products to their clients with minimal affect on the appearance of the structures they are attached to.

We will continue to develop options and features that meet the needs of specific openings and structures. We will add features that make deploying the protective screen easier and more convenient, and we will adapt the product to be used in non-hurricane related applications such as pool covers, temporarily covering outdoor eating areas, keeping heat in on porches in colder climates, and keeping the elements from effecting structures during wind, rain, snow and even more sudden events like tornados. This product will save lives and protect property like no product you have seen before.

HP: What advice would you give to other hurricane protection professionals?
Ciferri: Over-engineer your products like we did. There are a lot of products out there that may just barely work. This is not one of them. Our system is not designed to work on all structures or all openings, but this is a solution to many of the problematic openings hurricane protection specialists have been looking for.

HP: What trends and cycles do you see occurring in the industry? How is your business addressing them?
Ciferri: We see the need for less involvement from the owners of structures in order to protect their property. People are tired of carrying around heavy bulky panels, storing them in their garages, spending hours installing and removing protection products just to have to do it all over again a few weeks later. We have addressed these concerns.

Donovan Enterprises
3353 SE Gran Park Way · Stuart, FL 34997
Phone: (772) 286-3350 · (800) 327-8287
Fax: (772) 286-9774