When Bronco Pallet Systems first began, the company pushed the concept that simple is better, and 22 years later, that has not changed, despite numerous changes in the pallet industry. That’s because the “simple is better” concept has proven to work for the company.
“We’ve got roughly about 2900-plus happy customers, and we’re in 20-plus foreign countries,” according to Morris Self, owner.
He and his father, the late M.L. Self, started the company in Bay City, Texas, and relocated it to Lowes, Kentucky, about 10 years ago.
It had humble beginnings, and you might say the company was started by accident. The Selfs ran a pallet shop and built their first machine for themselves, with no intention of getting in the pallet machinery business. But it ended up cutting their labor force in half and made production go faster, so they built three more.
The nail guy who serviced their shop started spreading the word to other businesses, and before you knew it, the Selfs were selling pallet equipment. “We sold our first 75 machines in Texas with no advertising, and then started on our patent,” Morris said. They got the patent for their first machine, which is similar to their current Model 2001 Pallet Nailing System, on their first attempt. The machine had an automatic stacker, a metal jig, and like all their machines, it was made with ergonomics in mind.
“Ergonomically it made it easier on the guy building a pallet,” said Morris. “And we didn’t want to focus on automatic nailing. We wanted to focus on ergonomics and handling.”
Over the past 20 years, the company has earned respect in the industry, as it’s adapted to changes like the move to the thin-kerf saw, changes in the economy and housing markets, and so on.
“We’ve kept our ‘simple is better’ agenda and we are still going strong!” added Morris. “We’ve got a lot of people that bought our machines, and then bought something else, and now they’re starting to pull ours back out of the warehouse and use them again.”
Basically, customers are returning to a product that may be simpler, but one that they know will work well and get the job done, said Morris.
One of Bronco’s most versatile and popular products is its 3 In 1 Pallet Nailing System. The company initially developed the machine to address the need by its customers in pallet manufacturing and recycling who produced some oversized pallets on a small scale.
“We sold a lot of the basic machines for regular GMA pallets (48×40”), but we had a lot of customers that were doing over-sized pallets that were bigger than the regular machine would handle,” Morris explained. Oversized pallets made up a small portion of their production and work week, so they didn’t need a machine on the floor taking up space all the time.
Bronco created the 3 In 1, which has two stations for standard-size pallets, but easily converts to one larger station for handling oversized pallets as needed. It gives customers flexibility because they can do many pallet sizes on one machine.
In most cases, once customers get the 3 In 1 and start making the bigger pallets, they start making more of them because it’s easy, and they can do it without buying a special machine that only handles larger pallets, Morris said.
That’s important, he explained, because “what we found is that those are usually the most profitable pallets in the shop. Common pallets are pretty tight on profits. In most cases, we saw shops that started to build more big pallets turn around and buy an additional smaller machine.”
“Our machines have a small green footprint and don’t use much air or electricity. But we’ve done that all along – it’s just now become popular,” Morris said.
“Bronco Pallet Systems’ 3 In 1 machine is a proven and patented product that helps customers be more productive in their business. We are changing the world, one machine at a time,” he said.
For more information, visit www.broncosys.com or call 80/458-5462
