Soon we were doing very, very well. Natural gas prices increased dramatically and the production of wood stoves for supplemental home heating increased even faster. We used split firebrick to line the wood stoves and most firebrick manufacturers could not make delivery. WG built up inventories, took care of the customers and became a major supplier. Split firebrick was a very profitable product for WG. When the wood stove boom finally ended, we retained the customers and have increased market share since then.
The run-up in gas prices helped WG in another way. The investors who built the Morges Gas System wanted out and sold the system to WG in 1973. We installed a large compressor at Waynesburg to pump into the Columbia Gas System for delivery to Alliance. As the gas costs of our competitors and product prices rapidly increased, our gas costs were stable and profits went up.
