Bass Pro Shops curtails costs

Retailers feeling the brunt of the recession are cutting more than jobs to save money, and Bass Pro Shops is no exception.

Last year, the Springfield-based outdoor goods chain spent about $2.9 million upgrading the 1960s-era physical plant responsible for heating and cooling its sprawling, 1.7-million-square-foot Sportsman's Park headquarters, 2500 E. Kearney St. Bass Pro officials say the result has been big-time savings on utility costs - $40,000 a month on average. Annualized utility savings are an estimated $350,000 and $400,000, according to P1 Group, the Lenexa, Kan.-based electrical/mechanical contractor that in mid-2008 completed a massive overhaul of Bass Pro's physical plant energy center, which consisted of a steam boiler and absorption chiller powered by natural gas.

A projected four- to five-year return on investment should lead to long-term savings for Bass Pro.

"In its day, both the facility and equipment were efficient and made to last a lifetime," Bass Pro Director of Facilities Dan Hoy said in a news release. "However, it was high time we asked ourselves if we could improve efficiency and reduce expenditures with today's technological gains."

P1 Group installed a hybrid boiler that incorporates standard- and high-efficiency technologies to run on either natural gas or fuel oil, said Rusty Roderick, P1 Group's director of business development. The old chiller was replaced with an electric high-efficiency chiller, he added, and other physical plant equipment was resized.

"We were able to gain a lot of efficiencies just by properly sizing equipment," Roderick said.

Some of the inefficiencies date back to the building's former owner, Zenith, which air-conditioned an astounding 900,000 square feet. Bass Pro only needs to cool about 350,000 square feet, according to Hoy.

The month after the new systems were installed, Bass Pro saved about $60,000 in natural gas costs alone, Roderick said. Such savings also can be attractive for big companies looking to rein in expenditures in a down economy, Roderick said.

"More and more people are interested in looking at these things now," he said. "If I can't increase my revenue because nobody's buying anything, I better find a way to reduce my operating costs. And it's good environmentally, as well."

After P1 finished the job, Bass Pro hosted a lunch for some of City Utilities' largest commercial customers - called the "key accounts" - to share information about the equipment upgrades and energy savings, said Cara Shaefer, director of energy management and conservation at CU.

"It was neat to see that (Bass Pro was) able to do so much with it," Shaefer said. "And they did exactly what we recommend customers do, especially of their size: Have an engineering or energy consulting firm come in and do this analysis."

P1 Group's work for Bass Pro has led to conversations with Drury University and Assemblies of God, said Roderick, whose firm operates offices in four Kansas cities - Lenexa, Wichita, Topeka and Lawrence - and a new office in Las Vegas. The private company's 2008 revenues were about $200 million, Roderick added.[[In-content Ad]]