Gov. Kim Reynolds spent about an hour Friday at Windstar Lines for an in-depth look at how the pandemic affected the Carroll-based business and what they are doing now that the demand for tourism and travel is slowly returning. According to Windstar President and CEO, Jeff Greteman, revenues essentially disappeared overnight as the COVID pandemic took hold last March. He told Reynolds it is thanks to state and federal initiatives, such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), that they were able to stay afloat.
As a family-owned company, Greteman says another difficult aspect of the pandemic’s effect was being forced to furlough so many of their longtime employees. Fortunately, he says they turned a corner in the fall as their collegiate sports contracts with the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and others resumed. Windstar has not yet returned fully to pre-pandemic business, but there is certainly a pent-up demand from people wanting to travel. About $2 billion of the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill passed by Congress in December was designated for the motorcoach and similar industries, but Greteman says those funds have not yet been released.
Reynolds says the challenge many companies, municipal governments and even the state government faced when dealing with relief funds was trying to figure out how they could be used and when they would arrive. Windstar is now actively hiring drivers and staff to prepare for the anticipated surge in post-pandemic business for the motorcoach industry. The governor made several stops in the listening area Thursday, including Jefferson, Lake City and Rockwell City.
