Tim Moran, CEO of Moran & Sons’ Lumber of Phoenix, Arizona, shares his insights on working in the pallet industry. Moran & Sons’ Lumber, started by Tim’s late father Bernard Moran in 1961, specializes in manufacturing new wooden pallets and crates to customer specs, focusing on less than truckload, odd-sized specialty pallets. It also does high volume recycling of 48 x 40s. In addition to pallets and crates, the company also makes lath, rebar, wood stakes, nursery tree boxes and more.
Pallet Enterprise: How or why did your business first start manufacturing pallets?
Moran: We got into new pallets in the 70s and recycling pallets in the early 80s. The pallets were considered a byproduct at first. I don’t consider pallets a byproduct by any measure now. New pallets are our primary focus now.
Pallet Enterprise: Why did your company turn its focus to odd-sized pallet?
Moran: A number of years ago, we started focusing on odd-sized specialty pallets because the margins are a lot better and we just kind of got caught in the niche and are quite good at it. That’s what we’re doing now.
Pallet Enterprise: Tell us about the recycling side of your business?
Moran: We’re a volume recycler. We focus on truckload quantities of recycled pallets and even ship a lot out of our local market. We ship to Los Angeles, Paramount, Las Vegas, and in the spring, to the Yuma Valley and Coachella for the vegetable and fruit harvests. That keeps our recycling business busy between mid-fall and early summer. Most of our new pallets stay in the Phoenix area.
Pallet Enterprise: What is one thing that you do at your company that is different from other companies?
Moran: Well, we do low-volume stuff, and the more complicated the better because the margins are better. We’ll design crates and boxes. We don’t mind short runs. We’ll build 50 or a hundred specialty pallets for somebody. A lot of people don’t want to do that.
Pallet Enterprise: What is your biggest business challenge right now?
Moran: The tight labor market, but everybody probably complains about that. It’s hard to find people – the right people – to work anymore. You know, the unemployment rate is so low. So, we’re focusing more on automation all the time. And because of the nature of the odd stuff that we’re doing, we’re probably not as mechanized as some people are.
Pallet Enterprise: What do you like most about your job?
Moran: The challenge, I suppose. My dad said that we live by our wits. I like seeing things from beginning to end, from planning to the finished product. It’s better than working for someone else, I suppose. I’ve just worked for myself for so long that I can’t imagine what it’s like working for someone else at this point.
