HARRISON, Ohio—Mark Beach operates a small pallet recycling business. Small is fine with him. It enables Beach Pallet to be efficient and responsive to customers. And Mark can deal directly with both customers and employees.
Over the years, he has come to rely on Universal Machinery Sales when it comes to investing in equipment. He is on the verge of setting up and operating new equipment to produce recycled pallet parts as well as automatically nailing pallets built with recycled lumber.
Family-Run Business with a Versatile Staff
Beach Pallet is located on the northwest outskirts of Cincinnati, near the Indiana state line. Mark Beach’s father started the business in 1974, operating it in his spare time at first and eventually earning his living from it. Mark Beach began working in the business as a teenager. After his father passed away in 1990, Mark slowly but surely began adding new accounts. “I built it up the right way – not too big, not too fast,” Beach recalled.
The company averages about 8-10,000 pallets per week in sales, about 90% of which are recycled. That includes used pallets, repaired pallets, pallets made of 100% recycled material, and combo pallets. Nearly 100% of the company’s lumber is derived from dismantling used pallets. The company produces thousands of deck boards daily, frequently pairing them with new 2×4 stringers.
About 90% of the company’s production is the standard GMA pallet. Beach Pallet has customers in the grocery, pharmaceutical and chemical industries. “The food business keeps me going, for sure,” noted Beach.
“We’re a mom-and-pop shop,” said Beach. He is joined in the business by his wife, Tessie, their son, Kyle, and their daughter, Haley. Mother and daughter normally do billing and other administrative tasks in the office, but both have their CDL licenses and can – and occasionally do – drive a tractor-trailer. “Everybody can do the job that needs to be done,” commented Mark Beach. That applies to the company’s 12 employees, too. Virtually anyone can run a notcher or other machine, operate a forklift – whatever is required. “We’re efficient and versatile,” he added.
The company strives to offer anything a customer needs, from new pallets to recycled pallets to pallet hauling and recovery services. He has dropped some accounts in the past – ones that didn’t pay on time. “Over the years, you learn,” he said.
Beach Pallet has experienced a 15-25% annual increase in business over the last several years. “The last one or two years have been a gold rush in the pallet business like I’ve never seen,” stated Beach. The first quarter of this year outpaced any quarter during that period.
However, “The last two weeks are the worst two-week period we’ve had in the last five years,” lamented Beach. “It doesn’t make a lick of sense.” The recycled pallet market is “stalling pretty fast now.”
Customer Service Focus Drives Success
No matter the economic environment, Beach Pallet has found a way to survive by keeping overhead low and minimizing debt. Mark Beach prefers to pay off a new piece of equipment quickly and to purchase cost-effective solutions, which is one reason that he has relied on automation from Universal Machinery Sales and Mona Tracy.
“When it comes to pallets, one of the things I focus on is the quality, not the quantity,” said Beach. “I’m probably the only pallet company in the area that pays workers by the hour, and we pay a good wage. I believe that paying workers a piece rate based on the number of pallets they produce leads to inferior pallet quality.”
The customers he supplies, such as chemical businesses, require good quality pallets. For example, some pallets are used for transporting heavy drums of chemicals. “We have to make sure they get what they need,” explained Beach. Whether it’s a manufactured or repaired pallet, it has to be done properly “because we want to keep the customer.”
“My theory is that I’m not the highest guy in town,” said Mark. “I’m not the cheapest. I’m the best.”
Selecting the Right Automation Starts with the Right Partner
Mark Beach has relied 100% on Universal Machinery Sales, owned and operated by Mona Tracy, when it comes to purchasing equipment – pallet dismantlers, trim saws, notchers, and material handling and conveying equipment. His most recent investment was an In-Line nailing machine. Mark expects the In-Line nailer to produce 500-600 pallets in eight hours with one man operating it or up to 700-800 with two men.
Mark considered various manufacturers of pallet nailing machines. “I looked at all of them. I did my homework on the nailers.” Mona has provided excellent service, Mark noted, and is in close proximity when it comes to getting parts.
Beach Pallet has a Run-A-Gade high volume pallet dismantling system from Universal Machinery Sales for tearing down pallets and recycling lumber. It consists of two bandsaw dismantlers set up in tandem. A conveyor system below the machines collects the used pallet parts and empties them onto a turntable. A worker grades and separates the boards before they travel to a trim saw. When the lumber is trimmed, it’s ready to go to a builder or repair station.
By contrast, some recyclers fill racks with reclaimed lumber and then send the racks to the trim saw station. After the parts are trimmed, they are graded. The lumber is handled several times.
His method requires less labor, according to Beach, and the men do less work. “In everything we do, we’re super-efficient. We don’t handle things three or four times.”
The company is equipped with Revo revolving workstations from Universal Machinery Sales for assembling and repairing pallets. The table revolves to enable access to all areas of the pallet for nailing. The height of the table is adjustable from 32-38 inches.
Other equipment Mark Beach has purchased from Universal Machinery Sales includes a chop saw with an incline conveyor that feeds the waste trim ends into a hopper and a Trim-Trac end trim saw with a similar arrangement to collect the scrap material.
Mark has purchased a number of other machines from Universal Machinery Sales that he plans to arrange in a new shed next to his plant, and they will be devoted to processing reclaimed lumber. “Other guys see odd pallets and see junk to throw away,” commented Beach. “I see a pallet with 12 or 13 boards on it. That’s a GMA. Turning recycled boards into pallets has been a big key to our success.”
The new line will produce recycled pallet parts to supply the material for the In-Line nailer. The building has been completed and the equipment has arrived. Beach is just waiting for electrical service for the building, which has been complicated by railroad tracks that cross his property.
Universal Machinery Sales offers equipment for manufacturing, repairing and recycling pallets, skids, boxes and crates, component lumber, and specialty wood packaging. The company’s product offerings include both bandsaw and disc-type pallet dismantlers, trim saws and chop saws, nailing machines and jigs, band resaws, notching and chamfering machines, and more. In addition to its exclusive brands, Universal Machinery Sales also represents quality equipment manufacturers. The company also provides financing and leasing.
(For more information, visit www.universalmachinerysales.net or call (855) 298-8890.)
Mark has continually returned to and relied on Mona Tracy for the equipment he needs. “Mona for one, understands what you’re talking about,” he said. “I’ve had her equipment for years and years.” Her company is also very responsive when it comes to ordering parts.
Other equipment manufacturers have told Mark their lead times are 18-24 months for a new machine. “She’s pretty quick. And super friendly.”
“She’s a friend. Reliable. Her service is second to none…Her prices are great. It’s hassle-free.”
Don’t Be Afraid to Do Things Differently Than the Competition
Mark Beach also has a different way of processing incoming cores than some recyclers. Stacks of pallets coming out of a trailer are taken directly to a workstation. As a worker goes through the stack, he is repairing pallets that need refurbishing and separating good or ‘ready to go’ pallets from pallets that will be dismantled.
Other pallet recyclers may have someone sorting cores as they come out of the trailer. In that approach, the workers at the repair stations get only pallets that need refurbishing. They may build or repair 400-500 pallets per day, noted Mark, but he contends pallet quality suffers. His workers repair 300-320 pallets per day. In addition, his approach saves time, he suggested.
With his method, pallets are turned around quickly. “Our pallets don’t sit around long.” Beach Pallet keeps about one or two weeks’ worth of pallets in inventory.
Mark Beach prefers to obtain cores from businesses with surplus pallets, not ‘pallet pickers’ – small-time vendors who collect used pallets in pickup trucks or other small trucks. He’ll buy pallets from pickers, but he doesn’t rely on them for his core supply. Some businesses will give their surplus pallets to Beach Pallet; others will sell them. Beach Pallet has a fleet of about 40 trailer vans to collect and retrieve used pallets.
Core prices have fallen from last summer’s high of $6-7, when, at those prices, core quality was poor. Current prices are about $3.
Beach Pallet buys new lumber or cut stock as needed for building new pallets and for new repair stock in combination pallets. It buys hardwood and softwood, depending on availability and price. A year ago, when lumber was scarce, the company even sourced wood from Ontario.
Beach prefers to deal with and sell directly to customers, not brokers. “I’m probably a rare breed,” he said. “I’ve got nothing against brokers, but I like to control my own destiny.” His goal is to develop good-paying customers and give them good service to build long-term business relationships.
Mark is not concerned by the consolidation in the pallet industry, with large companies extending their footprints around the country and competing for cores. “I know the person I’m buying off,” he explained. He has been told other pallet companies offered $1 more for cores than his price, but the business prefers to sell cores to him because of his company’s strong reputation for service.
One thing that helps is that Beach Pallet is quick to send a truck to pick up surplus pallets. “If someone calls with a load, we normally pick it up that day…or the next morning,” stated Beach. “We’re pretty quick with what we do,” he added. “We’re prompt. And we pay right away…That’s the thing. The bigger you are, the worse your service gets. I think everybody understands that.”
Larger pallet suppliers may get big accounts, like an Amazon distribution center, admitted Beach. “But there are a lot of smaller accounts that really don’t want to deal with the bigger guys.”
“The one thing I’ve always leaned on is service and quality. I don’t want to be the biggest. My name’s out front, and that means something to me,” he added.
The signage in front of the company’s plant also has a Bible verse on it. “The Lord has blessed me,” admitted Beach.
Mark Beach and others from his company are active in ministering to the homeless community by feeding them dinner every Tuesday. With surplus food donated by some customers and other contributions, they prepare a meal for about 90-100 people.
Beach praised his employees. “I have a fantastic crew,” he said, hard workers. “When I roll in in the morning, I hear the nailers popping. Semi-trucks are rolling. I don’t have a deadbeat in the crowd.”
“I’m a real hands-on owner,” admitted Beach. “I’m not one of these guys who sits up in his office. I like being out with my guys, understanding what’s going on.”
Beach Pallet is “in a nice position,” commented Mark Beach. If a prospective customer isn’t a good fit for the business, “we don’t pick it up. If it does make sense, we’ll do it.”
