Valentine’s Day is one of the busiest days of the year for balloon retailers, and the ongoing helium shortage has been a cloud over many such businesses. I’ve been reading local news reports from around the country, all discussing the fact that helium-filled balloons are harder to come by and a little pricier this Valentine’s Day.
Welding & Gases Today has been following the helium shortage for the last few months, and with balloon retailers in the news, it seemed like a good time to check in with distributors. How is the shortage affecting distributors and their customers? The response is mixed.
Scott Myran, operations manager at Mississippi Welders Supply (Winona, MN), noted the helium supply strain in a conversation with me this past November, and told me this week that the situation has not changed in the last several months. “Helium is going to be an ongoing issue on into the future,” he says. “There’s a finite quantity. Eventually, we will get to the point where the U.S. is no longer the largest exporter in the world, and we’ll have to start importing. Helium’s probably going to become harder to procure, and it’s no doubt going to get more expensive.”
Despite the tight supply, MWS has been able to keep up with customer demand. Myran says the company created a backup plan on how it would prioritize if forced to put customers on allocation. “Medical needs would have been priority number one,” he says. Thankfully, the company has not had to call on this plan.
However, it appears some distributors have had to follow this route. End-user Donna Ryan, owner of Donna’s Helium and Balloon told Amarillo’s Pronews 7, “The way they are allocating the helium now, hospitals are on the top of the list, which is exactly where they belong. Balloon helium is at the bottom.”
While MWS has not had any difficulty meeting customers’ supply needs, Myran says costs have gone up. “Whether it’s helium or gas for your car, customers make that individual decision as they need to. Sometimes when we’re aware that something is in tight supply, price is not such an issue.”
In Wichita, KS, Lampton Welding Supply has not felt the pressure of tightening supply. “We haven’t had any strain. We’ve been able to fill 100 percent of our needs,” says vice president Doug Lampton. Lampton Welding Supply prepared for the helium shortage by purchasing additional helium cylinders, and it seems to be paying off. Lampton says the company has added quite a bit of business over the last few months due to other distributors’ inability to secure a steady supply of helium.
Similar to MWS, Glenn Bliss, president of General Distributing Company in Great Falls, MT, told KFBB “With our existing customers, we don’t foresee any issues whatsoever, but it’s a situation where we are not able to go out and proactively look for new helium business right now.” General Distributing invested in a tanker last year, allowing the company to pick up helium in bulk and bring it back to Montana. Bliss says the tanker allows the company to absorb some of the rising costs of helium.
How is your business handling the helium supply strain?
Of course, with the cost of helium going up, you can’t go wrong with a bouquet of welded flowers, like the ones created by a group of high school students in Washington for Valentine’s Day.
