Machines fit for condomnation.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: ON SMALL BIZ - Chuck York's Great Western Rubber Co.

Great Western Rubber Co. in Grand Junction is hardly what the name suggests--not some big, smoke-belching factory churning out tires and automotive belts and hoses.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Great Western Rubber Co. manufactures condom-vending machines.

"Pretty good, isn't it?" owner Chuck York says. "Heh-heh-heh-heh. Our motto is, 'We've got you covered.' My logo is the Colorado National Monument. What a phallic symbol, huh? Know what it looks like? It's a big 400-foot spire. Sandstone. Heh-heh-heh-heh."

York, a 64-year-old former Vail ski instructor, runs the operation by himself out of his four-car garage, next to his Jeep Wagoneer and MG Midget. Actually "manufacture" might be too strong a term for what York does.

"I just assemble them here," he says. "They're not hard to assemble. A single machine, I can put six of those together in 60 minutes."

The basic frames come from Choice Metal Products in Commerce City. The locks come from Pennsylvania. The coin mechanisms come from St. Paul, Minn., another one-man operation.

"His name is Tom Welsch," York says. "He's about 66. He used to make condom machines, too, and big Coke machines, but he got out of it and just went to the coin-mech that he invented. Does it all in his basement."

York estimates he sold 750 condom machines last year for revenues of about $150,000. Machines retail from about $200 to $400. He says 75 percent of his business is overseas.

The company's roots go back to the mid-'80s, around the time the AIDS epidemic came to the nation's attention with the dying, skeletal Rock Hudson on magazine covers. Louie Pintowksi, a friend of York's who owned a Vail taxi service, Louie's Casual Cabs, saw a business opportunity amid the public alarm and decided to install condom machines all over Vail.

"He called some manufacturers, and he could barely find any for condom machines," York says. 'The ones that would talk to him wanted to know his life story and what he wanted to do with the machines because of their protected territories. So he said, 'The hell with it, let's make our own.'

"So he got about 12 of us together and we invested in this and we started making the condom machines here in Grand Junction."

Apparently York's varied background equipped him for knowing how to reverse-engineer the design for a condom machine.

"I put myself through college as a Harley mechanic," he says. "So we bought some condom machines that we found...