PORTLAND, Ind. — Twenty-three years ago, Wade and Susan Kohler started a pallet company in the small town of Portland, Indiana without a single day of pallet industry experience between them. Today, Pioneer Packaging runs eight plants, nearly a million square feet of production and warehouse space, and a large fleet of machinery. Their business philosophy is simple — find something that works and keep doing it. The company has grown organically acquiring buildings, and carefully selecting equipment along the way.
“It’s an awesome feeling to start a business from scratch, not really knowing anything about pallets back in those days and being able to grow it to what it is today with the family,” Wade said. “The second generation is coming in and starting to find their place in the company so that it can go another 30 or 40 years. Very few people in the country get to experience that.”
This transition to the second generation, offering distinctive employee benefits and selecting the right equipment sit at the heart of the company’s present and future. A key supplier partner for the journey has been Midwest Machinery & Automation with its Woodpecker and Master Recycler nailing machines. Today, Pioneer runs ten Woodpeckers, with an 11th on the way, plus a Woodpecker Junior and eight Master Recyclers. “When we find something that works and we really like it, we keep on buying it,” noted Wade.
Starting Small, Dreaming Big
When Wade and Susan relocated to Portland in 1999 and launched Pioneer in 2003, they split responsibilities out of necessity as much as preference. “We really took two split roles because we were very busy at the time raising a young family,” Susan said. “My husband picked up the sales and customer service, and I basically did everything else.” That division has largely stayed the same. Wade runs sales and customer service, while Susan, who has an accounting degree, oversees purchasing, financials, payroll and a 12-person office staff.
What has changed is who else is in the building. Three of their sons now work in the company. Scott oversees the lumberyard, pallet sales and flatbed logistics, including managing six full-time drivers. Andy, the middle son, covers building and machine maintenance across all of Pioneer’s eight facilities. The newest addition, David, joined about a year ago to lead IT and technology and is learning bulk lumber buying from his mother.
“We are trying really hard, especially as a family-owned business, to slowly push our sons into accepting the responsibility for more of the active management of the business,” Susan said. “We’re trying to help them make those decisions as a good family group between them and their brothers.”
What happens to the business is in the family’s hands, and the next generation is stepping up to the challenge. “With it being a family business, every problem is our problem,” Scott recognized. “You never know what you’re going to get into.”
The Woodpecker Journey
Unlike many operations that automate due to labor challenges, Pioneer came to it from a position of strength. “We were very lucky in this area that we had a very good labor pool to pull from,” Wade acknowledged. “We never had to deal with some of those labor issues that other companies had to deal with.” Regardless, as the company has grown, it has kept adding plants and adding more automation out of necessity. Wade noted, “It didn’t really matter how many buildings we owned; the next step was definitely going to be automation into all of the nailing machines.”
The first Woodpecker machine was installed in early 2023. “The more we ran, the more we just kept ordering,” Wade said. Pioneer’s Woodpecker fleet is split roughly evenly among new builds, combination pallets and fully remanufactured pallets.
Wayne Wagner of Midwest Machinery & Automation noted, “The drive behind investing in our equipment is the flexibility with lumber, productivity, and cost of ownership… The Woodpecker has become an industry standard for reclaimed lumber, especially for combos (new runners and used deck boards).”
Pioneer can produce anywhere from 1,200 to 1,800 pallets per shift using reclaimed lumber when building 48×40 pallets. Pioneer puts more on its machines than other Woodpecker operators do because of the complexity of the work. Pioneer relies on three to four operators per machine. Many of those operators are women.
Wayne commented, “We are seeing more customers diversify their labor pool with women, and Pioneer has been invaluable in showing us how well this can work. In addition, we are also seeing other customers use 2 to 3 operators on the Woodpecker and still average over 1,200 per shift, with some hitting 1,600 to 1,800 with 3 operators.”
This is a shift Wade credits directly to the machine, which roughly doubles hand-nailing output with far less physical strain. “The Woodpecker gives you a much wider flexibility of personnel operators to run the machine. And your quality is much, much better,” Wade stated. On a strong day, a single Woodpecker can turn out 600 pallets in a couple of hours; the plant’s single machine record stands at 2,100 pallets in a single eight-hour shift.
Susan sees the payoff in customer service as much as throughput. “Our Woodpeckers have only complemented us,” she said. “When you can regularly produce 1,200 or more pieces per Woodpecker per day, that has really supported our effort in taking care of customer service.”
The Kohler family invests for the long-term. That’s another major benefit of the Woodpecker machines. “We had seen some Woodpecker machines that were 15 or 20 years old, still running wide open, just like a new machine would,” Wade commented. “These real-world stories prove their durability and dependability.” Andy, who handles maintenance, agrees that the Woodpecker machines rarely give trouble, and credits the company’s rep, Wayne, who “knows that machine down to every single bolt.”
Wayne commented, “Unlike so many other manufacturers post-COVID, we still have the same great team building and designing our machines. It is because of their care, compassion, and drive that our machines can stand up to the rigors of this industry.”
One main reason behind the popularity of the Woodpecker is its price tag compared to its production. Wayne stated, “The Woodpeckers’ overall cost of ownership is unparalleled. We continue to use the same high-quality components that we have used for years, many of which are made in the USA. We also continue to spend a lot of time and money on enhancements and updates, many of which are driven by our customer’s feedback.” Due to the simplicity of the machine, training new operators is a fairly easy process, and each Woodpecker can be customized to meet the needs of each customer.
Feeding the Line: The Urban Sawmill
Two years ago, Pioneer installed an Alliance Automation Urban Sawmill at its main Portland plant. Although this was a major capital investment, it now runs three shifts and sorts every deck board by thickness into separate bins feeding straight into the Woodpeckers. And the results have been a gamechanger.
“It makes our combo pallets look like a brand-new pallet, because of the consistency of the thickness and width of each board,” Wade stated. The Urban Sawmill is an automated trim saw line that scans each board and optimizes the cut for what a pallet company needs. Boards are then sorted into bins providing for efficient production and reducing labor requirements. Before the Urban Sawmill arrived, crews sorted boards manually across all eight plants. Wade noted, “We had a system so good that Alliance’s own installers were stunned. They had never seen this done by human operators this fast and efficiently.”
But the Urban Sawmill was even better. “The material feeding into our Woodpeckers is so consistent. Even though it’s a recycled board, it feeds into the system 25% better than our old process where we sorted by hand,” Scott explained. Andy sees the same benefit from an operator’s perspective. He said, “It really helps the operators run a lot smoother and quicker because the operators don’t need to sort out junk boards anymore.”
Wayne added, “We love seeing the Urban Sawmill in the same operation as a Woodpecker. It is not essential to success, but a well-run Urban Sawmill Line ensures that Woodpecker operators are making pallets not sorting lumber, and pallet quality is significantly improved.”
When you produce thousands of pallets per day, it takes a lot of lumber to feed the operation. Even running three shifts, the Urban Sawmill barely keeps pace with Portland’s volume. Looking back after roughly two years, Wade doesn’t hesitate: he declared, “If you make a lot of combos, this machine is just a giant plus because it feeds the Woodpeckers as perfect as possible each time.”
Investing in the Business and Its People
Most of the company’s growth has been internal, through expansions of its existing business, particularly during heavy building years in 2017 and 2020. Pioneer now has more than a million square feet of production and warehouse space. Susan clarified, “Our acquisitions were about buying new facilities for our manufacturing plants. When we added new plants, we bought buildings and started in new locations.”
The Kohlers believe that their workforce is an extension of their family. That’s why they have developed Toddlertown Early Learning Center, which was recently recognized by Indiana Gov. Mike Braun for its accomplishments in providing affordable childcare for area citizens. Toddlertown is a state-licensed early learning center for the children of employees and is also open to citizens in the community.
When he toured the facility earlier this year, Braun said, “Affordable, reliable childcare goes a long way to making life more affordable for Hoosier families. Today at Toddlertown Early Learning Center, built by Pioneer Packaging, I highlighted action we’ve taken to make child care more accessible, including a $200 million investment in child care vouchers and a new law that gives employers a big incentive to provide great child care options for their employees.”
After about six years in planning, Toddlertown opened in February 2024. It serves children ages six weeks to 13 years old with capacity for 96 children plus 35 before- and after-school slots. It is currently full with a three-year waiting list, and half of its enrollment is open to the public rather than reserved for Pioneer employees.
“We took six years of hoping and making sure it was the right decision before we did it,” Susan admitted. “It’s been very positive for our employees, very positive for the local community, and it has had a huge impact on employee retention.”
The idea behind Toddlertown traces back to the Kohlers’ own move to Portland in 1999, when daycare was a major challenge for their family. Susan said, “We knew we had to do something to keep everyone local and keep everybody in the business.” Toddlertown is a retention tool for young employees. Susan explained, “When employees are in their mid-20s, it’s a great opportunity to bring them into the business and retain them as an individual employee and let them grow with you.”
Susan was personally involved in every detail of the building, which is state-licensed and non-church-affiliated — a rarity of its size in Jay County. “I personally put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into Toddlertown,” she said. Wade has encouraged other large employers to follow his lead. He noted, “We live in a small town of about 8,000 people, so it’s a big deal when the governor visits. He’s real big into trying to get other companies to copy our approach.”
Pioneer’s second major people investment is a new 24,000-square-foot maintenance garage for its growing trucking fleet. Currently, the company has 60 full-time tractors on the road daily plus thousands of trailers. Wade commented, “We have some really good key personnel in our maintenance garage, and we want to say thank you to them because they’ve been here 10-12 years at this point. We want to give them the garage they honestly deserve.”
Construction is underway now, with completion expected in late 2026 or early 2027. “It’s really going to triple our capability,” Andy, who works closely with the crew, said. “We’ve been lucky to have good employees that have stayed for a long time and really take care of us.”
Equipment Partners
Pioneer’s equipment roster reflects a preference for a small number of trusted, long-term suppliers. All 80 dismantling machines across Pioneer’s plants are Wood-Mizer units, a relationship Wade traces back two decades. “Brad Kirkaldy has just been fabulous to work with for 20 years — that’s why we have a single source,” Wade stated. “Wood-Mizer’s an hour from us, and we probably have machines that are 20-plus years old that run and operate as good as the brand-new machine we just bought from them. It’s just an electric motor with a gearbox spinning a blade. Wood-Mizer’s equipment is very easy to repair if anything ever does go wrong.”
Smart Products supplies Pioneer’s chop saws and chain-fed decking saws at every location outside the Portland sawmill plant. “Both suppliers are located nearby within 45 minutes of us,” Wade said. “Both companies provide simple and durable equipment that does the job.” For processing lumber, Pioneer relies on Morgan resaws. Most run on double shifts pushing and pulling boards through simultaneously on powered infeed and outfeed wheels. “Morgan makes a very good, dependable machine,” Wade commented. “We have used Morgan re-saws for many years and have had great luck with their dependability. Baker Supplies all of our high speed notchers and de-duster equipment.”
The Master Recycler has been dispersed throughout many of the additional Pioneer locations. The company can put a single operator on these machines and build up to 400 pallets per shift. Frequently, the operator is a woman, whereas before the automation, men were typically building pallets by hand at a lower rate. Wayne explained, “The Master Recycler has given Pioneer the ability to diversify its workforce and get more pallets per operator.”
What’s the difference between the Master Recycler and the Woodpecker? The Master Recycler is designed to be used with ALL reclaimed lumber, including stringers and deck boards. Wayne explained, “The variety of used runners’ widths and thicknesses is better handled by a Master Recycler’s runner clamp system. The operator loads each runner into the clamps for every pallet, so they can strategically place it in an outside or inside position and turn the runner if necessary. The runners should be as cleanly dismantled (nail stubble) as possible, but it is more forgiving than the Woodpecker when they are not. In addition, getting one person to show up is more probable than multiple people, there are no personality issues to contend with, and it’s quick to adjust for small- volume runs.”
Automation has allowed Pioneer to keep growing without having to add more people. With eight plants, the company had developed a blueprint that works. Wade explained, “We’re able to do a lot more volume in the same amount of space, and that’s a huge win for our business and customers.”
Lumber, Product Mix and Zero Waste
Pioneer buys the bulk of its lumber by the rail car. This includes 2x4s in 8-, 10-, 12-, 16- and 20-foot lengths. Based on its impressive volume, Pioneer runs 8 to 10 truckloads of material a day through the mill. “We literally try to buy everything by the rail car,” Wade admitted. Susan, who handles most of the bulk lumber buying while training David to eventually take it over, described the sourcing mix as heavily domestic Southern Yellow Pine.
The product mix has held remarkably steady over the last decade even as overall volume has grown. Pioneer produces roughly a third new pallets, a third combination pallets and a third recycled pallets. In addition, Pioneer manufactures a high volume of specialty crates and boxes, including large industrial crates and shipping containers. Susan added a bit more context to its production; she clarified that roughly 70% of production is custom-sized, versus 30% standard GMA 48×40 pallets.
Always focusing on efficiency and sustainability, Pioneer wastes nothing at its main production facility. A single large Rotochopper 500-horsepower grinder paired with a 500-horsepower hammer mill efficiently processes wood waste in one pass. All of the company’s wood waste is converted into animal bedding across two shifts. Pioneer upgraded to a new unit in 2021 to boost capacity. “We recycle absolutely everything. Every bit of wood waste that our entire company makes gets put into our grinder,” Wade said. “We almost cannot produce enough livestock bedding materials year-round.”
Building Custom Technology and Better Data Systems
David’s arrival about a year ago brought a fresh perspective to Pioneer’s back-office operations. With a degree in software engineering and expertise in IT, he is helping lead the company’s transition from more manual processes to a custom enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. David has been developing the software from the ground up, to improve upon the company’s current accounting platforms. The new system will support logistics, scheduling, general operations and financial reporting largely from scratch.
“We’re focused on moving toward a paperless operation to reduce lost paperwork, eliminate unnecessary manual processes, and make our day-to-day operations more efficient,” David said.
What Comes Next
Twenty-three years in, Wade doesn’t see Pioneer slowing down. Additional Woodpeckers, a five-head Baker cutoff saw and another new Rotochopper are already on order. “We’re in it for the long haul,” Wade stated. “We have our three sons that are all in the business and are dedicated to this for the rest of their lives. We just want to keep becoming bigger and better if at all possible.”
